We bought some yummy grain mix for them and added to their crappy laying pellets. We then poured the mix into their new posh chook feeder. They picked out all the grain and left the pellets! Mum had a good grope of the Flossy the bossy during the powdering, and noted she was a bit skinny. So I think they are carbo loading to make up for it.
I am in the middle of making them new perches, as their existing wooden one is EVIL. Wooden perches are a no no as they harbour mites. I am making metals one from a metal book case I got for $5 at the tip (I have now discovered the tip shop - wheeeeeee!). I will need to drill holes on the metal (there's an adventure) and angle grind the mesh off the shelf part. Must now buy angle grinder. Yay!
This may test my handywoman skills but dont fret; today I proved myself in the bedroom. -cough- I mounted a metal pole in the walk in robe (see photo). This was no easy task. First I used a studd finder to find the hard wood behind the panels, then I cut the pole to length with a hacksaw, pre-drilled the holes (not easy in hard wood) then screwed in the end supports making sure to wax the screw threads!! Clever eh. All those tools and things.
The next de-infesting will be to worm the chooks (some of them have very grubby butts), and then poison their scaley leg mites by making the birdies drink Ivermectin, a pesticide thing.
Oh and we found their eggs! They were laying on the bamboo grove (it is very nice in there). Mum retrieved 9! Now we let them out later so they will lay in their pen. We had our first pen egg this morning, but I dropped it.
