Backyard Farming Forum
Bringing food production home

ISA Browns average about 300 eggs per year. I've had 4 hens and a rooster for a few months now. They clean up everything. By far the best way to clear ground for a garden. They get rid of the plants and most of the seeds that are in the soil, leaving it bare and lightly cultivated. There manure is a little strong until it has aged. They are also great for getting fruit fly from under fruit trees.

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To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

How do you go with the Rooster, is he noisy?

I'm wondering what chook breed to go for at the moment, my old Isa's died last year, time to restock soon, but I might rearrange the old chook pen first.

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www.backyardfarming.com.au
Bringing Food Production Home

The rooster can punch a hole through a plastic bucket. And he does not seem to know what time to crow. So he covers his bases and crows all the time. But man they end up big. I grab this one when he charges at me and then carry him around while I check the eggs. He does not like this and gives me a wide birth for a day or so. I like the ISA's they are easy to replace and do a great job of cleaning up the yard.

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To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

This is one of my old girls.. Psycho chook....



Their chook pen was directly underneath a white mulberry tree, the white mulberry is so prolific that I hardly had to feed the chooks for three months of the year.



If you have space for it, PLANT A WHITE MULBERRY. They require hardly any water, produce for many months, don't stain, taste like a cross between apricots and watermelon and don;t suffer from many pests of diseases.

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www.backyardfarming.com.au
Bringing Food Production Home

The *BEST* way to deal with that pesky rooster, is to grab him, and putting him under one arm, use your other hand to push his head down so it is almost straight down.

As you push his head down, you will notice him resisting strongly at first, do not let him win, keep at it until he no longer puts up a fight.

Once this is done, Congratulations, you now have a rooster that knows you are the boss, and will run away from you when he sees you, rather than attack you.

If all of your family members are able to partake, it makes him less aggressive to you all.

I find I have to do this every 6-12 months with mine and really works.

Sounds better than hitting him with a stick.



Some new ground opened up to the girls.


PS I love the no time limit edit button.

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To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

We have 3 Isa's and get 3 eggs most days, they have free run of most of the yard and manage to clean up most bugs and slugs, no rooster although 2 nearby neighbors have roosters, they get pee'd off watching the scraps going to the worms, if you want chooks for eggs then Isa's are the go, and such personality as well

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Cheers
Nocky
Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. Doug Larson
My Weather Site, going 12 years +
Nocky's Backyard
My Aquaponics System

we have an Isa x english game/rhodie cross rooster. He is a good looking lad, Son of Steve. But his comb is purple!

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contentment

My rooster jumped the branch I was using to keep him away from my legs and put 2 spur holes in my hand.

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To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

we have 3 roos, Monya, Joel and Son of Steve

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contentment

Seeing as we are introducing our Isa Browns I thought I'd post up some of mine.

I've kept them for five or six years now. Had about three lots of chickens in that time. Unfortunately in the earlier days we lost about seven to a fox over night. Then another four to a snake. We had one chicken that survived both the fox and the snake, which we later renamed Houdini. She escaped from the chook pen almost every week. So we just left her out to roam our 5 acre block. Which she happily did for about two and a half years. I eventually caught her again and after about three weeks of trying to escape her confinement, she died. I found the poor thing one afternoon under a stack of pots, that she had climbed up onto. She died of dehydration.

Anyways after the first few hurdles I ended up with just three which I've still got. Going to get another nine or so one day but probably not for a while.

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This is heaven, right here. This is it. Give it all you've got!

To every problem there is a solution. Much of the solution depends on how we view the problem.

Hey mitch, did you lose the 7 at once in spring? If so the fox was a female getting ready to whelp, they will take all the chooks bite the heads off and drink the blood to gain the iron they will need after they give birth.

My neighbor has lost all his chooks three springs running.

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Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

Haha yes it was in the spring!! I didn't know that though. Good thing we killed it then, otherwise we would have had a whole litter of foxes!!

A lady in a nearby street has lost almost all fifty of her chickens to foxes. I think she has half a dozen left. The foxes ended up getting in four or five days consecutively. It was around November when it happened, so again in the Spring.

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This is heaven, right here. This is it. Give it all you've got!

To every problem there is a solution. Much of the solution depends on how we view the problem.

This was knee high unmowed lawn only a month ago.

And if your wondering what the chooks are doing, they are waiting for me to throw something over the fence or move it another meter or so.

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To think before you act is a wise option. But not as funny.

ours have free run of the back backyard and they are excellent lawnmowers, 3 chooks and 10 x 20m of lawn gets mowed heaps less than our beer section of the yard that chooks don't access

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Cheers
Nocky
Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. Doug Larson
My Weather Site, going 12 years +
Nocky's Backyard
My Aquaponics System