Meet the Big Boy!

Here is our new rooster. He's a big boy! We don't have a name for him yet, any suggestions? At the moment we call him - wait for it - Big Boy!

This is his first morning with our girls. He was a bit reluctant to get off the perch. Can't blame him, the weather is pretty bad today.

He is pretty, isn't he? Also very gentle with the girls so far.

New chicks on the block

We picked up our new chicks from The Neighbour Gnomes on Saturday afternoon. Popeye had been breeding them the last few months. He worked on a Rhode Island / Isa Brown cross.

Here they are now (enjoying a venison shank bone). They are a few weeks from laying eggs.



We have partitioned the chook shed for the time being. So that the new ones will stay on the right hand side for a few days until they have settled in. Once they are free-ranging as well, we will take the partition down again and they can all mingle freely.

Feeding frenzy!

Last weekend we went out for tea - something that doesn't happen very often. But we were too knackered after a day of shovelling 1 ton of dolomite sand, manoeuvring a 5000l rain water tank into position, etc. to do any cooking in the evening.

Anyway, we were enjoying our meal immensely, and all that was left on the plates was a big pile of bones (pork ribs, lamb shanks - a real meat feast!). So, we were saying how much our chooks would enjoy these bones (there was still a smidgen of meat left on them), when the waitress asked how things were, etc. When we told her how lovely the meal was and that we were wondering whether we could have the bones for our chooks, she didn't bat an eyelid and brought out some alu foil to wrap them up. Wow! We did feel bad about the alu foil, and were wondering whether to bring a container for chook scraps with us next time we went out for tea...but that might be another story.

So, next morning the chooks had an absolute feast! They weren't too keen on the lamb shanks, but enjoyed the pork ribs.

Here they are:

Luise

...is our oldest chook at 6 years (or more) of age.

She's the little grey one. The two others are ex-battery hens and they were 18 months when we got them about 4 years ago.
Luise has been in semi-retirement for the last 2 years. When she gets broody (which happens very regularly), she sits in the nesting box for about 2-3 months. Must be cosy in there. We leave her be, as she seems to need the rest. The other chooks tend to just walk into the same box (we have 8 nesting boxes, but they only like the ones where another chook is already laying or sitting!!) and lay their eggs. So Luise sits on quite a pile of eggs every morning. You should hear here screech when we take them from underneath her. Sometimes you have to lift her up and do a little bum-check, as she sneakily clings on to an egg. Then one day she'll just get up and leave the box. For a few months nothing happens - then, suddenly, she lays an egg!
Spot Luise's little, pointy and very hard-shelled egg. It's perfect for when you want to crumb something.