August 29, 2007
Over achiever
Bantams lay one egg every second day. THAT is a rule.
Bluey the chook has never had much time for rules. From the first she was the most out-there of our four chooks, setting off where other more cautious bantams were loath to go, confronting the local cats, playing chicken on the path with Jacob on his bicycle and out-ninja-ing the three year olds.
So it should come as no suprise that Bluey the chook is once again doing her own thing and laying an egg every day. Just because she shouldn't!
Posted by Faith at 08:22 AM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2007
Infamous
Famous for all the wrong reasons at the local stock feed store, (Andrews in Sydney Rd, Coburg) I was beginning to despair that my four bantams would ever lay an egg! At ten months not only had they never laid but just to add insult to injury it looked as if one was going broody on me. Damn cheek I thought, all things considered. Lucky for them they are too small for the pot!
All is forgiven though as the recent onset of spring-ish weather has set two of them off simultaneously. We now get two eggs every second day. Hopefully the other two will soon follow suit and we'll have a full complemnt of layers! Maybe it was the broccoli?
Posted by Faith at 06:22 AM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2007
All is forgiven
Posted by Faith at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2007
Dead chooks walking
Thats the remians of my broccoli you're looking at! AND the culprits.
Posted by Faith at 03:06 AM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2007
Glam pusses
I've never been a slippers person, always quite happy to get around in bare feet or go the whole hog and get dressed but recently I succumbed to something over-the-top and glamorous from Peter Alexander. I still wasn't convinced that I'd actually wear them though.
I needn't have worried. The slippers have come into their own as very glamorous chook-wear. First thing each morning I shuffle bleary-eyed down the garden path to the chook-shed, feet snuggily encased in extravagant bows and baubles. I'm sure the joie-de-vie with which 'onze dames' unleash themselves onto yet another day's worth of unsuspecting worms and snails comes at least in part from my footwear. And how fitting they are too, for chooks themselves blessed with such extravagant plumage.
Posted by Faith at 02:27 AM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2007
Yes, we have no eggs
Our chooks are not laying.
They are keeping the lawn down, the vegies fertilised and the garden well-ventilated. They have also learnt how to scare off local cats and pigeons with Ninja-Chook manouvres. They are huge, fat, fluffy and happy. They are now about seven months old. But they are not laying.
Debra from Book-a-Chook assures me it is the abnormally warm weather we are having. The warmth sending the chooks into a late-moult (true) and chooks don't lay when they're moulting. Andrew of Andrew's Feed Store in Sydney Rd suggested we try putting them on a higher-protein pellet (they eat very little pellet food, surviving on our garden alone most of the time) to try and kick-start the laying thing. Happily, he now has a 100% certified organic layer pellet so we will be giving that a try. The organic plot thickens!
Posted by Faith at 06:27 AM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2007
Bluey the chook is now leader of the pack
She's conniving, scheming, daring and now; she's leader of the pack. Bluey the chook has usurped Willemijn as boss-lady of this little quartet and now rules the roost, the veggie patch and the outdoor furniture.
Posted by Faith at 03:47 AM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2007
Chook booty
Posted by Faith at 03:50 AM | Comments (0)
February 28, 2007
Chook-cam
Just in case there's any doubt, work wasn't going well today.
Having earlier rummaged through directories I then resorted to actual drawers and found a little Minolta Dimage (bleugh!...) that DOES take video, albeit without sound. No wonder it was stuffed in a drawer. Jacob being at creche I had to settle for the next best thing and so here it is; the first LIVE but-eerily-silent Brunswick Chookcam!
Starring in order of appearance: Bluey (the red one), Willemijn, (the black one), Floortje (the blonde) and Olive (the dull lavendar coloured one lurking in the back).
Posted by Faith at 04:58 AM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2006
Chook Update
Our four chooks have been free-ranging for a couple of weeks and are now confident enough to have taken over almost all of the backyard. They have also been grazing (is that what chooks do?) over my vegetable gardens without harming any of the seedlings. The volume of chook-poo in the backyard is such that it is only ocasionally even noticeable so that is working out alright as well. After all they are only wee little things.
They all seem to be growing quite a bit which is good and they are noticeably a group of four now whereas earlier they were very much two pairs. The size difference between them (one pair is a week younger than the other) is also less noticeable. I think they may be 10 and 11 weeks old? Can't really remember.
They all have quite distinctive personalities and these are also developing and becoming more pronounced as they get older and as the group dynamics settle.
Thus, below we have Floortje,(the top photo), and Bluey. Bluey was quite red when we got her and is a lesson in not-naming-your-chooks-too-early, or at least not after colours. As you can see she is not very 'Blue' now. Bluey is the most adventurous and inquisitive of the four. She is the only one prepared to wander of without the pack and go exploring and the last to follow the rest of them.
Floortje, the white one with the black flecks is a real madam. She has the most extravagent feet and tail feathers and is exceptionally gorgeous and carries herself as glamourosly as a chook can. Other than the way she looks she's a bit boring really.
I'll tell you about the other two once I've got some decent photos.
Posted by Faith at 05:23 AM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2006
The chook has landed.
On the weekend we went to Book-a-Chook and chose our chooks and bought them home. We have four chooks; Olive (the silver/grey one), Floortje (white), Willemin (black) and Bluey (red). They are six week old bantam Pekins so won't be laying for several months yet. They are all settling in well and we are scurrying around chook-proofing the vegie garden and backyard so that they can free range. Jacob seems to be coping well with the disapointment of not being able to get a green chook.
Posted by Faith at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)