The Flock

I am quite taken with our flock of chickens as you may well have noticed from the recent distress caused by out naughty puppy, and you can often find me leaning on the gate to their run or hanging out inside just watching the goings on. So since I am likely to write about them in the future I thought I would introduce them.

 

Big Red

 We have our main man and rooster extraordinaire "Big Red" who does a wonderful job of protecting his girls, finding them food and alerting them to any dangers.  He is a proud bird with beautiful plumage when in full glory.  Most of our chickens have just been through a moult so Big Red is yet to grow back his beautiful tail feathers.

Little Red - Trying to work out if the camera is edible







Then there is "Little Red" the matriarch and top chicken.  She often looks a little battered and a lot older than her 18 months of age but she is very inquisitive and our best layer.  I would guess that she has laid 360 eggs in the last 365 days and it is easy to tell if she has laid as her eggs are different in colour to the others.


B1 - Gradually getting her feathers back after her moult



 B1 (stands for Bantam 1) she used to have a partner in crime, B2, however sadly B2 went to chicken heaven at the hands, or should I say mouth, of a neighbours dog.  B1 is my favourite, she is a Cochin Bantam and the only one of the flock who can be handled with ease, not that she really likes it.  She is 2IC despite being a bantam and keeps the young chickens in line.  When she runs she looks like an old time lady hitching up her skirts and running it is so very cute to watch. 

Bubble - Doing her thing



 Then there is Bubble who was B2's replacement.  She is permanently clucky.  To the point that we have given up trying to isolate her in an uncomfortable cage to break the cluckiness.  She stops being clucky for about 3 days when she comes out of the cage then is right back to it.  So now we just pick her up of the nest every time we are in there and put her outside.  She is then inclined to stay out there for a while eating and dust bathing before going back to her broody ways.  The other chickens have her worked out too, they just squeeze in the nest box beside, her push her out, lay their egg then let her back in again.



Sooty and Sweep



Sooty and Sweep are a pair of Australorps who like to stick together, I wouldn't say they have no personality but they certainly have no interest in making friends with us human folk.

The Up and Comers - Ginger and the other 2 that are yet to be named

Lastly there is a group of up and comers who will be coming into lay just as the other start to drop off over winter. 

We let Bubble sit on an egg, yep just 1, and that gave us Ginger.  Then after she raised Ginger we gave her another 2 eggs to sit on (hoping to get another hen) and low and behold we got 2 more hens, these 2 are yet to be named.

So for a household of 2 that gives us quite a flock, 1 rooster crowing, 6 hens are laying, 2 bantams brooding and puppy in the chook pen (or something like that).