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Australia
I ran away from teaching to the country to grow veggies. There are also some chooks and a pair of troublesome goats who were so much trouble they had to go! My simple green life isn't always as simple or as green as I'd like...but I keep trying!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Detective work

Clue 1: Lack of eggs.
Well it is winter and it is not unusual 
for egg production to decline.

Clue 2: Two missing hens.
The chooks refuse to use the coop 
preferring to roost in a tree. 
Maybe a fox got a couple...
or maybe I just miscounted.

Clue 3: Lots of eggs
Wow! I haven't checked for a few days. 
 Just goes to show that the girls are sensitive
 to the lengthening of the days 
and have begun to lay again.

Clue 4: A few huge chook poos around.
Time to hunt for a couple of clucky hens!


Gotcha!
What is that cheeping sound?


That would be from the fifteen chicks she has hatched!
It could be more.  
I had to count 
while fending off 
the very angry mother.


She has single-handedly 
doubled the chook population at Hazel's

I found the other hen, 
sitting between the fence 
and the outdoor kitchen.

I wonder how many she is sitting on.  
I can't get in to see.

Anybody need some new chooks?


16 comments:

  1. oh wow.....that is a lot of chicks...and eggs!

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  2. what a wonderful surprise, eggs and chicks

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  3. That is a big family for one hen to look after! Just imagine what it would be like if human mothers produced 15 kids all in one go... (no, don't).

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  4. Good score. You're gunna have lots of chooks.

    Barb.

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  5. Way to go girls...oooh I feel like Spring is about to bust out, well the dreaming of it is nice

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  6. Miss Marple has nothing on you Hazel.

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  7. Fabulous luck, i can see and feel Spring around the corner but can't convince my girls of it.

    Sara

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  8. OH WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! 15! What a woman! How gorgeous!

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  9. Oh and by the way, when will Mrs Bok and I be coming for afternoon tea?!

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  10. You lucky duck or should I say chook. My two are resolutely holding out. Eddie the white leghorn produced three eggs over a week, two weeks ago and nothing since. And that was after a break of almost two months due to a moult. I've tried everything, even buying pet mince to boost their protein intake (a woman in the butchers told me to do that as her girls hadn't stopped laying through the cold). But to no avail. I'm sorry to say that I've started to mention "the pot" to them but threats don't seem to work either. They just seem to be getting fatter and fatter. And as for Ron the rooster - hah! Yes, it is bloody freezing and wet with not much sun around - most of the time - but come on girls, surely six eggs per week isn't too much to ask?
    As I said, you surely are the lucky one, eggs and chicks!
    Jan

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  11. Hazel you gorgeous young thing! I'd rather you took one of mine - she is a regular houdini and gets out several times a day. The baby chicks are just gorgeous - names??

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  12. Great post Hazel - and what a wonderful mum she is to have hatched 15!! Hope she hangs on to them.
    Nice to see some familiar 'faces' here..... Ali!?

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  13. Congratulations to mother hen! Which one?
    It makes me laugh Hazel when I remember your first efforts encouraging your clucky hens, the deaths and pecking and the ensuite nursery!

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