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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!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

In the hen-house

The girls aren't laying much...
we've only had one egg this week.
But they are eating, 
socialising,
sexing (as my 7 y.o. grandson calls it)
dust bathing,
clucking...
in short, living the chook life.
Cheeky and Heather dust bathing in the sun.
Heather is one of the original refugees from
a battery farm. She must be about 4 or 5 years old now.
Of the 8 aracauna chicks I bought, only two remain.
Five were roosters, and one of the hens
 just fell out of the tree...dead.

This one is called Cheeky,
because of her sideburns. 


 This one is Pompi...for her pompadour hair-do. 
Between them, they churned out about 
four dozen green eggs 
before the cold stopped them.

The Rooster.  
He is the champion of the harem, 
always on alert, 
settling squabbles among his ladies 
 finding the tastiest morsels for them.
and demanding his due reward, of course.

I think he fathered more than 12 chicks last season...
most of them with barred plumage like his. 

Four of his sons have been re-homed and there is one left.

I think I will take both father and son
up to the farm soon.

I will get another fella, 
to introduce some different genes.
This rooster prefers the older girls,
who were the basis of his original harem,
and is not so interested in the araucanas
and the other hens.

I think a new man will be glad to take
the whole lot under his wing!


It is difficult to count...they don't stay still,
but I think there are just over a dozen hens
at present...
not including these metal ones.


6 comments:

  1. we are still getting four, if not five eggs every day from our five girls....lucky...very....hope you get some more eggs soon...

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  2. One is brilliant at this time of year!

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  3. They all look adorable, including the metal ones! And healthy too, living the good life :)

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  4. we are getting 4 a day out of 8 laying chooks come spring thou all the other girls will be grown up enough to be laying so we will be getting heaps..

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  5. Hazel, is your new Header photo the view from your house?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No Mark, the photo was taken at a tea-rooms up on the mountain, about half an hour from here.

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