We have three silkies at the moment, just about to come into lay. They’re named Seraphina, Luciana and Ro (yep, we’re big Barbie movie fans around here!).
We had a rooster named Molly as well (I know, my defense is that you can’t tell their gender as day-old chicks!), but we had to get rid of him. Kiama council (like many others) doesn’t allow roosters in residential areas, and he was starting to crow at 5:00 am. Fortunately, the good people at [Matilda’s Farmyard Nursery](http://matildasfarmyard.homestead.com/) took him off our hands. He’ll be doing the rounds of childrens’ birthday parties now – if you see a black silky, say hi from us!
It was a good outcome for the kids to see that he was going somewhere beautiful, with lots of other farmyard animals to keep him company. The owners were really nice, and were happy to take the time to show our girls around the farm and let them pat the animals. I highly recommend them as an ethical business that looks after their animals in the best way possible.
With the departure of Molly, we now have a vacancy in the Chicken Ark. Silkies aren’t the best layers – they lay smallish eggs, lay less per year than purpose-bred laying breeds, and tend to go broody fairly frequently – so we’re going to get a layer to replace him.
After reading around a bit, I think the breed we’d like to get is the Australorp. They’re an Australian-bred heritage variety, and I think that’s worth preserving. Only problem is, I can’t find anyone that has them in the local area.
If you know of anyone selling point-of-lay Australorps in the Illawarra or Shoalhaven areas, please let me know via the comments below. Thanks!
Hi Darren,
Have you tried back yard poultry web site. They have a notice page with chickens for sale. Now should be a good time as its spring and they will be breeding. I have wellsummers and pekin bantams.. Im getting about 4 eggs per day. Have been giving heaps away.
Donna.
Hi Darren, Just had a quick squizz on back yard poultry..
http://www.backyardpoultry.com there is a lady in Windsor who is selling Australorps. $15 each. Its only 1 hour 15 min to windsor on the m7 Motor way. we were up there last weekend to look at a new kitten.
The advertisment was dated the 14 Nov from Sarah. I tried to cut and paste the add but it would not let me. Check it out she may be able to meet you half way. Let me know how you go..
Donna.
Hi Donna,
Thanks for the tip! I had found some people down Nowra way via BackyardPoultry.com, but none of them have Australorps at the moment. I also got some suggestions from the Sustainable Illawarra team, so I’ll follow them up too and see what I can find.
I’ll write another post shortly summarising all the places I’ve been told you can find chickens.
hi darren
rentachook looks like a brilliant idea. i know lots of people for who this would be a fantastic idea but i haven’t seen anywhere local who does this.
we’re now almost 9months into chicken rearing and loving every moment (well maybe not ‘loving’ cleaning out the shed…)
Thanks for stopping by Barbara! I couldn’t tell from your blog where you live, but if there’s nobody locally renting chooks there could be a business opportunity. Like you don’t look busy enough as it is :-).
By the way, I loved your frog and cat-on-ball-of-wool cakes. Very inventive!