The best hen ever to hatch!

Vera was a little chick.

She took life in her stride.

Rejected by a broody chook,

She was reared inside.

Vera and her sisters,

Attended sex-ed classes,

She wasn't phased at all,

when discovering eggs came out of arses!

Our Vera was not modest,

As these pictures show.

She aired her fanny on the internet.

Is that a camel toe?

Vera was a chook with style,

Her feathers fairly glowed,

Ginger was her favourite colour,

She wore it where'er she goed.

She was a friendly, confident girl,

Assured of her sexual charms,

She chatted up the roosters,

And had them eating out of her palms.

Always at the gardener's heel,

Pecking at a calf.

No one could ignore this girl

She never did things by half.

One recent moonlit night,

She met her foxy match*

But she will never be forgotten,

Vera, the best hen, to ever hatch!

*Vera wasn't the only one.  We also lost half of the adolescents from the clutch of 15 hatched a few weeks ago, and Zorro the rooster.  Going by the amount of grey feathers, Zorro put in a valiant effort to fight off the fox, but sadly failed. 

Ugly duckling?

The Gang of Fifteen, 

are now mixing it with the big girls.  

They are fending for themselves

and their mother has resigned from her position.

 

Fourteen have enough feathers,

to look like miniature chooks now.

Then there is the ugly chickling.

I thought it might just have been a day or two

behind its siblings. 

But the difference is greater than that.

It is much smaller and its feathering is poor.

Maybe this is what comes of your mother

reproducing with your grandfather. 

'I'm a swan, I tell you...A SWAN!'

More 'Mother' stuff

Check out how many legs this hen appears to have!

She makes that certain purring cluck and they all huddle for a bit of warmth.

Now they are getting bigger, she has a bit of trouble accommodating them...

hence the one on top.

There are fifteen (one died) and their mother, 

like most hens, is an outstanding mother.

She controls them all by a range of clucks and calls.

She protects them from the cats and the weather

and takes lessons in foraging.

The other hen, who was sitting on a clutch of 21 eggs,

disappeared.  I think Mr Foxy may have come in the night.

The horror of sweet sixteen

Not fifteen, but sixteen little chicks

(though you can only see fifteen in the photo).

Mum does not have a name

as she is one of the six or so identical girls,

fathered by the Plymouth Rock rooster.

Mum # 2 (another of the unnamed six)

was off the nest when I checked today.

I counted 19 eggs.

That makes a possibility of 35 chicks.

Half of which will likely be roosters.

The whole flock has gone feral.

I can't find any eggs - again.

So presumably, they are laying

another clutch somewhere

for one of them to incubate.

I will have to put on my detective hat again.

If they are let go, Alfred Hitchcock

may be tempted to rise from his grave

to make the movie:

CHOOKS!

Detective work

Clue 1: Lack of eggs.

Well it is winter and it is not unusual 

for egg production to decline.

Clue 2: Two missing hens.

The chooks refuse to use the coop 

preferring to roost in a tree. 

Maybe a fox got a couple...

or maybe I just miscounted.

Clue 3: Lots of eggs

Wow! I haven't checked for a few days. 

 Just goes to show that the girls are sensitive

 to the lengthening of the days 

and have begun to lay again.

Clue 4: A few huge chook poos around.

Time to hunt for a couple of clucky hens!

Gotcha!

What is that cheeping sound?

That would be from the fifteen chicks she has hatched!

It could be more.  

I had to count 

while fending off 

the very angry mother.

She has single-handedly 

doubled the chook population at Hazel's

I found the other hen, 

sitting between the fence 

and the outdoor kitchen.

I wonder how many she is sitting on.  

I can't get in to see.

Anybody need some new chooks?

Balding

Rocky, the plymouth rock rooster, 

struts about the yard

oozing proprietary confidence.

He takes his pleasure when, where

and with whomever he pleases.

The instant the araucanas began to lay

they attracted his carnal interest.

His genes are dominant.

Nine of the eleven chicks, hatched

this season, have variations of his barred plumage.

But even a stud like Rocky,

has to moult.

The two remaining tailfeathers

blow about in the wind,

like a very bad comb-over on

a bald man.

His undies are on view for all to see.

He still has all the moves

and can shake a tail feather - or two.

Mind you, Heckle doesn't seem too impressed

in this instance!

More Chook Maths

You can probably tell by the knowing look in Hortense's eye

that  she has hatched her eggs...seven little chicks.

So, to the maths:

21 chooks + 7 new chicks = 28

28 - 4 Araucana roosters that went to the farm = 24

24 - Zorro* = 23

*Zorro - the araucana rooster that is going to live with Phoebe at Ballynoe Cottage

The boys weren't too excited about going to the farm.

Here are Jenny's chicks, there are 4 of them.

They are 8 weeks old and independent now.

I am loving this one...it looks like an adult but is only tiny as yet.
Betcha it's a rooster...the only white one in the batch.

 That makes 11 chicks/teenagers all up.

So that will be another 5 or 6 roosters to deal with.

I do wish we had the stomach for killing them.

It is such a waste giving them away.

That will  leave about 16 or 17 hens 

in Rocky's harem.

Twenty-four and counting!

Hortense has hatched out three chicks today

and when I hold the other four eggs to my ear

I can hear scratching!

So that makes twenty-four fowls...with more likely any moment.

Mmmm!  Some little roosters are going to have move out.

Fat Fruit Friday #10 - The Tardis

Something you may not have known 

about the Fat Fruit Greenhouse.

Just like the Tardis it is much bigger inside than it appears.

Incorporated in one side, 
is a chicken coop!

The nest box opens from the top for easy egg retrieval.

The whole door (with the nestbox attached) swings out

for easy cleaning.

There is mesh above and below the nest box for ventilation.

At first I was a little worried 

about the heat factor inside the coop.  

But I have been monitoring that with a thermometer

and am very happy that the ventilation works well.

It is ideal for Jenny and her babes.

It would take three or four hens if you were using it as a night coop

and had the door open during the day to allow them to free-range.

In this view from the side you can see that it is a triangular prism.

Daniel is going to make benches with one shelf at the top so,

from now on, the coops will be square in profile.

Can you see the marine ply, on top of the coop, under the shelves?

In the winter these panels come out and there is

a mesh panel to keep the chooks out of the greenhouse.

(You can see this in the second/middle photo)

Two of the panels fit exactly in the grills on the door,

above and below the nest box.

In the colder weather, the chickens are protected from the draught

AND

the warmth from their bodies will help to even out the temperature

in the greenhouse on cold nights. 

Now, isn't that clever!

Fact: Chickens' body temperatures range between 39.8C and 43.6C.

The bearded woman

I'm sorry little chick,

but araucanas are funny looking!

Who ever heard of a bearded chook?

Or are you a rooster?

I suppose you could always get a job in a circus

as the bearded woman (if you are a hen).

Otherwise, chip chop, in the pot!

Now you will notice that is two posts about

cooking roosters...

but I will never be able to do it!

I'm too chicken!

Tra, la la la la

..la la la,

I'm just like My Daddy, Rocky!

Look at my lovely wing feathers,

Tra la la la la,

They are coming through black and white

just like My Daddy, Rocky's.

Whaddayamean?  

If I am too much like My Daddy Rocky, 

you are going to cook and eat me?

Almost seven

We have five little peeping chicks!

Four are black with variations and one white.

The white one is probably one of Jenny's own

as she is a bared leghorn.

Jenny didn't notice when I popped the first one back.

Another hatched but died soon after.

It was covered in egg yolk.

Between 15 and 19 days of gestation

the remaining egg sac is absorbed into the chick's body.

This provides nutrition in the first couple of days

and is why the hen often doesn't begin to teach them to eat

straight away.

Either the yolk was not absorbed or the chick was

injured during hatching.

This morning, Jenny was still steadfastly sitting

on her nest, more than 40 hours since the first hatching.

I thought it was wise to remove the 

remaining eggs so she could get on with being a mum.

I checked, none of them was viable.

One had begun to hatch but hadn't made it.

Below are some pictures of the chick.

It is amazing how well packed they are.

(But don't scroll down if you feel sqeamish

about such things)

This one shows the egg tooth.

This is the correct positioning is with the head under the right wing.
There isn't much room to move.  Just a bit of scratching with
the egg tooth to break through (it had done this).

So little.!

Almost

Who's your daddy?

Well, in fact, we know who your daddy is:

Rocky Plymouth.

It is your mummy we are confused about.

Could she be this light?

Or could she could be The Cook...

who was so worried about you last night, 

she took you to bed with her

and is now walking about with you, up her shirt. 

(Strange but true)

Jenny has been sitting on nine eggs for the allotted 21 days.

Yesterday, I found this little scrap,

evicted from the nest, cold and limp,

on the floor of the coop.

As you can see from the pictures below, 

at least four others

are about to hatch.

The eggs are a mixture from all the girls, 

so that is why we don't know who the mummy is.

The white eggs are Leghorns' though.

The chicks are peeping, inside the eggs.

When I checked, I could hear them.

It was so loud, I was sure 

I was going to see chicks

when I moved Jenny.

(There are more than 9 eggs, you say. 

The girls like to pop an extra egg

or two under Jenny when she

hops off the nest for a drink.)

If she accepts the new chicks today,

we will slip the first one back under her.

If she rejects them,

it looks like their mummy

will be 

The Cook.

Booook, bok, bok, bok, bok, bok.


Interesting site with photos of embryonic development of chickens.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

Have you been reading this blog long enough 

to remember the birth of the herb potager?

It has been a year since the beginning of this project.

The herbs weathered the winter well 

and have gone so spring crazy, 

it is difficult to make out the structure!

Scarlet beans will be running up the arch soon.

What is that dog looking at?

Hope it isn't a Joe Blake, this close to the house.

 Arrrgh!  It is a giant, moth eaten, wild Araucana chick!

What are the best herbs for 

putting in stuffing for roast chicken?

Sage - check

Parsley -check

Chives - check

Thyme - check

Oregano - check

Mmmm!

"Whaddya mean? Roasted, self infused, herbed rooster?

I thought you'd gone vegetarian!"

Don't worry, little chickie, I couldn't put an axe to you!

Way, too cute!