Not a choko

Taking refuge in the vines...our latest addition

Meet [Sooty]...for now

I cannot be trusted to go to the produce store alone...sigh. This little one just seemed to want to come home with me...only there isn't really anyone to look after it. I am trying a broody Fluffy but so far mixed results. Oh dear - what have I done?! She is so cute...another Araucana like Gum Nut so little green eggs. That is, if she's not a boy...as I think one of our little Light Sussex might be!

Currently courting the names Sprinkle & Misty given as they came to us in the wet

When will I learn? The point is to do your research BEFORE you buy the chickens. Light Sussex are  large birds so they mature quite late and are therefore hard to sex after the first week. The farmer assured me he'd take them back if they were roos but so far hasn't answered my emails. Hmm

News bulletin:

A startled resident made a citizen's arrest this afternoon after 6 adult chickens were caught trespassing. The hens were apprehended eating grass along the side of the house after breaching perimeter fencing referred to by locals as 'the chicken proof fence.'

"I was sitting at the computer working" said the bemused owner. "I thought I could hear something unusual and when I looked up I saw two hens standing on the door mat."

The chickens face an array of charges after several Unauthorised Gardening Projects* were discovered in the top garden.

"I don't know how long they were at it" said the owner. "I was deep in thought and I forgot they were still out in the yard. M. is not going to be happy."

Six counts of 'trespassing in company' with 'intent to grievously dig up the garden' have been brought against the hens. The ring-leader faces the additional charge of 'sneaky chicken' and may face further penalties restricting her liberty. Two un-named juveniles were released with no charges after being found fretting by the gate having been unable to fathom how the others had broken in.

The six suspects will be confined to the hen house until charges - or a sufficient number of eggs - are laid.

---
Reporter: Helga Featherfoot
Location: Blue Mountains

*Coined by UK chicken-enthusiast, Celia Hart.

Best in show

Image source. Thanks Loani for passing it on!

I don't know what is more deserving of the prize - their beautiful little hen or that awesome knitting!

Meet the peeps!

The young'uns arrived this morning and a pair of little sweeties they are too! I forgot how small they are at this age so need to get some grower mash as the pellets are a bit big for them. They are great little foragers after living free range out on a large property at Mudgee. The girls are curious but not at all aggressive toward them which is a good sign but for now I have them separated just so they can settle in without too much stress.

So! Without further ado, here they are:

I'm tentatively calling the one at the back Blossom. M. thinks it's a bit twee but I think it suits her!

mmm...breaky

Being watched over by Boss Chook

 

I have a feeling the one of the left might be a little boy...guess we'll have to just wait and see!

Crazy

With poor ol' Pumpkin (RIP) gone, we've taken stock of the hen house and realised that our girls are getting on. Because early on in our chickening I read somewhere that they can live to 12 or 13, I just decided that that was how long our girls were going to live. Turns out I might have been a bit optimistic. As it stands, our girls are now aged as follows (in pecking order):

Fluffy - 5
Buffy - 5
Marjie - 5
Pippy - 4 1/2
Daisy - almost 5
Gum Nut - almost 2

In terms of egg laying, we aren't getting what we used to. So...oh dear this seems a bit crazy and also a bit sad so soon after Pumpkin (RIP)... tomorrow we are taking delivery of two new girls! They are 12 weeks old and a breed we've wanted for a long time but haven't had much luck with: Light Sussex. Here's what our girls will (hopefully) grow into it:

Image source: Collingwood Children's Farm

So there is a wee bit of excitement in the house today as we prepare for our new girls and start the silly name game which is always entertaining. Feel free to add your thoughts - obvious themes are anything that is white. So far we have come up with, and rejected:

Whitey
Porridge
Sago

As you can see, we have a long way to go!

RIP Pumpkin

Our lovely girl Pumpkin fell off the perch last night - literally. I found her face down this morning in the straw. It's very strange - it doesn't look like her neck is broken and I can't see any harm that she's come to other than the obvious fact that she is dead. My poor girl, what happened? I wonder if I should take her to the vet to just check that she wasn't sick. She has been laying like a trooper, active and happy. No signs of lethargy like Violet had at the end. I've felt her crop and it isn't too full, doesn't seem compacted. Why would a perfectly healthy chicken just die? M. thinks she might have fallen down while asleep and hit her head on the way. It's possible, I guess. I know she had a good life but I'll miss my little friend. RIP Pumpkin. You were a good chicken and we loved you.

A few days old

 Here she is, little poppet, the day I brought her home. I went to the produce store to get grain for the girls, and feeling rather clucky myself, came home with this little ball of fluff just sitting on my lap in the car! Serial broody Fluffy was in her fourth month of sitting on an empty nest so I thought I'd put her out of her misery. Despite all I'd read about putting chicks under hens at night so they accept them, I just strode out the back and presented her to Fluffy, whose response was to cluck excitedly, lift her breast and let the little one run under her and settle down. Here they are, very content together on their first day:

 

First day home

As the weeks went past, Fluffy showed herself to be a pretty good mum after the fiasco with Friday. It was a delight to watch them together.

 Learning to preen

Finding her wings

Being the youngest, she got picked on a fair bit and was never very far from her Mum. When Fluffy started laying again she would stand on top of the layer box until she was done.

Sticking close to Mum

Of all the girls Pumpkin was the only one who ever got up on my lap which was strange because she was also really flighty at other times. Ever curious about what we were doing, she would fly up onto the garage window and come visit me while I was working.

Whachyadoin'?

It's hard to explain to people who dont have chickens what distinct personalities they have. Each one is different and you get used to their funny little ways. It will be strange not having her in the hen house.

Goodbye friend, we'll miss you. Thanks for being part of our lives and for giving us lots of lovely eggs and entertaining us.

Pumpkin (Nov 2008 - Jan 2012)

All good news

Well, when Ness makes up her mind about something, she really doesn't muck around: she's home! She made leaps and bounds after we saw her last Tuesday in Intensive Care, was moved to a ward on Thursday and sent home just in time for New Years Eve on Saturday. She has a lot of rest ahead of her and her partner is doing a great job organising visits so that we don't tire her too much in our enthusiasm to see that beautiful smile. I'm booked in for tomorrow morning - yah!

I can only imagine how confronting this has been for Ness - it certainly shook everyone around her. Not at all what we had planned for her or her for herself. Waiting for news of her progress, I couldn't think of anything else. It was like having a movie of our lives going through my head and I found myself searching through boxes of stuff to find photos of times we'd shared or things we'd bought each other as kids. I kept thinking of funny anecdotes about our families that we've shared - stuff that no one else in my life knows about except maybe my siblings and probably not even then. That's the thing about knowing someone for so long, they have all the back-story of who you are and how you came to be that way and it's pretty damn special. I remember my Grandma telling me when she was elderly that everyone who knew her as a young girl had died and how incredibly sad that felt. It was like a bit of her had died with them. I'm so not ready for that.

I'm trying to figure out the year for this...I think maybe it's 1985 and we are 17. It's Christmas afternoon when all our family friends would come to visit. That's me second on the left (dag) and Ness next to me on the right (cool). Nothing much has changed! Although what you don't know is that was a major milestone for me: I'm wearing a skirt! When Mick met me I had several pairs of overalls, drawers full of Bond's t-shirts and a backpack was (still is) my preferred bag. For my 30th birthday I received no less than 7 handbags from concerned friends who obviously felt I had entered my adult life the wrong way around. I'm much better at the girlie stuff these days, and quite enjoy it. Ah well, that's what happens when you grow up the only girl in a family of boys!

Day 10

Well today is day 10 - the last day of the second most critical timeframe for Ness. To survive the first 72 hours is awesome, but days 3-10 are the statistically highest time for a secondary bleed. That is, for a stroke. When she is fully awake she is bright and lucid; her speech is good and there are no signs of physical damage. Yet she has had a severe brain injury and her headaches are persistent and high on the pain scale. They have scanned her repeatedly (the first time she tried to crawl out of the machine because the noise of the MRI was so unbearable) but found nothing to operate on. This is worrying. But - her slow improvements are positive and that is what we hang on to. Her partner Brett has been amazing - so calm, positive, gentle, and kind, and so thoughtfully managing the requests of all who love her and want to visit. While it's good for her spirits to see people, it is a strain on her and she needs to rest so after my first visit I'm content to love her from a distance and let her get on with her healing.

I'm grateful to my brother-in-law for reminding me of my blog...there are a lot of messages and posts happening on Facebook and that is great as a way of communicating with lots of people but I found posting here yesterday very comforting and quiet. So I am going to keep posting here as she gets better and take the opportunity to scan some old photos that I have so that when Ness is better we can laugh over them together.

So here are some I took when I was in year 12 and doing photography for my HSC art project. Ness was an apprentice chef by then, living out of home and having a life completely different to mine. She is/was always way more cool and sophisticated than me and I think I have always felt a bit in awe of her because of it. I'm sure she'd disagree and I guess that's why we're still friends after all these years.