The Greening of Gavin

Archives for October 2009

Establishing the Pecking Order

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As promised late last night, I have made a movie about introducing new chickens into an existing flock.  It is quite entertaining.  Grab the organic popcorn and get stuck in.

Now it was shortly after the making of this movie that the three larger birds decided it was time to stretch their wings and test the boundaries of their chicken run.  So, Kim and I had to clip their wings.  It is a quite harmless procedure, whereby you grip the chicken firmly and gently spread one wing at a time and cut off about 2.5 cm of the wing tips.  It simply changes the shape of their wing and stops them from taking flight.  As they moult next winter, we will have to perform this task again. 

Just make sure you use a very sharp pair of scissors so not to hack at the feathers, as they are still connected to a live bird!

And to finish off, here is a proud Eco Boy keeping an eye on the chooks after I packed them into their boxes in the boot of our car.

Oh, and one of the Pekin are laying.  They have such cute little eggs.  Just the right size for Ben.

The New Flock

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Sunday was fun in so many ways.  We were expected at the chicken breeders place at 10am, so Kim, Pam, Ben and I left at about 0920.  Just as we left it started to rain all the way to New Gisborne, which was a welcome sight.

We arrived on time and met Sue, who bred the hens.  We picked out 3 ISA Brown hens that were just past point of lay, however two were not brown, but white with black flecks.  Unusual, but nice and the other was marked just like our existing 3 girls, but a bit of a darker brown colour.

Just as we boxed up the three hens and put them in the boot of the car, Kim saw some Pekin Bantams and fell in love with them!  We asked how much they were, expecting some exorbitant price, however Sue said that her eldest lad bred them as pocket-money and that they were only $20 each.  This was a bargain, as I had heard that these cute little chicken go for as much as $60-70 at auction.  Here some pictures of Pippa and Poppy.  They have fluffy little pantaloons!  So, $100 later and 2 hen more than we bargained for, we left for home.  It was still raining.

Pekin Bantams

Pippa is the grey and Poppy is the brown Pekin Bantam.

pippa bantam

Cute little girls aren’t they.  We think that Pippa laid an egg today which was so tiny, and  Poppy is about 3 weeks away from point of lay because of the size of her comb.

poppy bantam

The 3 larger birds were very flighty, and all escaped, and nearly left the property.  Kim and I had to clip their wings so they couldn’t get airborne.  Now that was a fun job I tell you.

We made sure that Pippa had a claw trim and that the two Bantams had Vaseline applied for scaly mites on their feet, which is not uncommon with their breed.  Kim held the birds and I clipped Pippa’s claws, then we swapped and Kim put on the vas on their feet.  Animal husbandry at its best.

The two white ISA’s are called Gracie and Esther, and the brown ISA brown is called Babs.  Not too many photos just yet, but suffice to say Pam took quite a few photos and we filmed a 10 minute movie that I will post to YouTube tomorrow.

White Leghorn

So now we have Bunty (the boss), Ginger, Edwina, Pippa, Polly, Gracie, Esther and Babs.  From 3 chooks a few days ago to 8 right now!
Standby for a movie, which I hope to have finished tomorrow, and I will also write about the gardening I managed to achieve over the weekend as well.
See you tomorrow.

Water Security

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This is a scary picture.  When I first moved to Melton in August 2000, our local reservoir was full to the brim and water was spilling over the slipway.  Today, this is what it looks like;

Merimu dam0001 
It was only a few years ago when in about the 10th year of the Victorian drought, the State government and water companies decided that it was probably best if Melton was connected to Metropolitan Melbourne’s water network.  It took a full year to lay a pipeline from Sydenham to Melton township, and the associated pumping stations to connect the two systems.  We are now in our 13th year of below average rainfall in our district with no end to the drought in sight, but at least we have a water supply that is a little more secure.

I dread to think that if this vital piece of infrastructure was not put in place, the entire town would either be drinking muddy water, or would have started to become a ghost town due to water shortages.  Food for thought, and probably a very good time to think of your own water security if you are in a similar situation. 

 
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We do get rainfall here, and certainly enough to fill up my small 2300 litre tank, and if I had the money I would put a gutter on the carport and get a 10,000 litre tank with the option of connecting it to the house hold supply.  A small solar powered pump, a UV sanitizer and filter would be all that would be required to be independent from mains water.  Something to plan for in the very near future!
 
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I suppose all that water in the swimming pool could be desalinated with a simple solar still, so we are probably no as bad off as I first thought.  We have been putting the runoff from the tank into the pool so it is also full to the brim.  I think it holds 50,000 litres, so certainly enough and if necessary easy to convert into a proper water storage facility.  It only needs a big lid to stop evaporation. 
 
When we get that desperate that I have to start desalinating pool water, I think that water security will only one of a long list of issues that we would be up against!  I shouldn’t complain one little bit, because I know that many millions of people have to travel up to 10km per day just to carry back daily water supply of 20 litres the 10km on the return trip to their homes.  We don’t have it bad at all.  I think about this often and I feel selfish having all that water when others have none or little to keep them alive.  It make you realise just how good we have it here in Australia, and that we shouldn’t waste a single drop.