Greetings Poultry Lovers,
Strike up the banjoes . . . it's a chicken & duck update. Thanks to chicken loving families at school, i've spread more hens i inherited from a friend around. My husband came home from Afghanistan to find a flock of 16 chickens & 3 ducks living down our side passage, it had to be thinned out & naturally that happened as cute chicks grew into Roosters, like Viola/ Violo, who is now living on a farm with 13 hens, hello ladies!!
Our beautiful, friendly, tame, raised-from-eggs Khaki Campbell ducks grew a little too noisey for suburbia & our very patient/ tolerant/ deaf neighbours never complained, however, they are moving soon & we can't trust the next family will be so nice . . . so when my sister said she'd LOVE our ducks to join her flock on her property in Bowral, we said our goodbyes this morning & farewelled Calliope . . .
Bongo . . .
& Bugle (the drake) who we can visit in the school holidays. My sister hadn't told her 3 duck loving children they were picking them up (on their way home from the snow) so they almost burst when she said they were coming home. They will be loved & we will take them or their offspring to our farm in the future.
As we continue our faux farming journey, we're experimenting with new chicken breeds to see which ones we want on the farm. On the weekend we picked up Saxophone the American Wyandotte from the Farmer's Market, she likes to nest up on the hay in the cool . . .
& Harp the Araucana, known as the 'Easter Chicken' from Chile - as they lay coloured eggs. I can't help but admit, i wanted her for her blue, green & lavender eggs, i'm shallow. She has the most amazing emerald feathers when the sunlight hits them. They are both 30 weeks old & ready to lay.
So that is where we're at, confident we have another rooster in Piccolo, sob, & we've ordered two ISA Brown chickens (excellent layers) as the decline in eggs with hens leaving, isn't enough for our family & i refuse to buy eggs. Chickens have just been the most fun & success - consider keeping them in your backyard. Fear not, our German Shepherd is still walked daily & loved to pieces too. I don't think we'll do any more chicks until the farm, too heart breaking when they grow into roosters, crowing is not allowed in suburbia. Yeehaw, love Posie
13 comments:
You really are sharing the love around aren't you? A most deserving winner of bunk beds I say! Enjoy your aracuana, they are my favourite all time chook (sob, sob, sob as mr fox took my last ones...) xxx Alison
really glad your sis could take the ducks and love them. good luck with these hens! :)
What a lot of chook and duck love there....my twins loved your pics as i was scrolling btw lol!!!
Makes my 3 little chookies look a little puny!!
So sad the ducks had to go. I miss Bongo already
;( sad face Mimi
I was so glad when our ducks 'moved on' (they were always promised to one of the schools Cleggy visits!) We have 2 new ladies too - a lavender araucana (lays the easter eggs - I'm shallow too!!!!) and a crazy white arauncana, complete with fluffy white leg warmers and laying purple coloured eggs. SO excited. No egges yet though - too busy establishing pecking order. There's a photo on my current post but they are still pretty shy....happy days! fee x
I cannot wait to get chickens!
Our neighbours have some and Toddler C is just obsessed with them...so is our dog!
I am thinking that Toddler C will get some chooks for his second birthday present!
I should point out that Harp isn't a pure bred Araucana, but should lay rainbow eggs, we'll see. I will hunt down some pure breds a.s.a.p. They are normally fluffier, check out Chipper Nelly's lavender one, she looks far more authentic. Love Posie
super sad that they had to go i really miss them but they're really lucky where they are now going.
have fun ducks love kiki
One big happy family.....
Hi Posie
I love the Araucana!! Where do you get them in Canberra? We've got two Faverolles which are stunning to look and friendly too but two intermittent layers are not enough for our family so I'm after some other pretty girls to join the flock.
Jules xx
I know what it's like. Even though we are on a farm, there are just so many roosters that we can handle!
Oh I think you are the best chicken/duck namer around. Those names are awesome! Glad the ducks found a lovely home - I wouldn't mind living in Bowral :)
Nice to read this update Jennie and hear how they're going.
We pick up 7 new chooks on the weekend, the kids can't wait! I picked a selection of 4 different types to see how they go as layers and which ones the kids take to the most. I was worried about them turning into roosters, but the breeder agreed to swap them for hens if that ended up the case - Win!
Post a Comment