Look! A Chook!

Just your average backyard chook chick from Tasmania. 13 crossbreed bantam hens and 1 rooster, 3 Australorp hens, 2 silkie hens. I love them all! 🐔🌼❄💖 Follows will be from my main, jupiterminingcorporation

[look-achook]

A Tale of Two Chickies.

Ugh, human is disturbing us while we're sitting on our nest again, she's so RUDE.

Hey, why do YOU have both the eggs Violet?!?

Okay, this mine now.

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We currently have seven broodies hogging the nesting boxes. I need to shove some of them into Broody Henitentiary to break them, but being the height of summer I need three to four consecutive days at a reasonable temperature before I can do that. 🙄

(PS, they're sitting on the fake eggs at the moment. I have one hen (Delphinium) who throws the fake eggs out because she knows they aren't going to hatch. The others just treat them like good eggs.)

[look-achook]

Starflower is Broody and Grumpy and Very Round.

[look-achook]

I'm still fairly convinced Agapanthus is actually a Fraggle...

Meanwhile, Tempest is one of those weird fuzzy marionettes that were so popular in the 80s. Or possibly a Scotch thistle that's been enchanted into chicken form.

[look-achook]

TANSY?? CAN I SEE TANSY? PLEASE I LOVE THAT NAME SO MUCH 😭

Absolutely! Tansy is a fancy girl. 😄

I went and stalked her for you specially this morning. ❤🐔

[look-achook]

I'm so proud - Starflower has started laying! Her little egg compared to a regular silkie egg (which is smaller again than any of the other bantam eggs).

This is her third egg, I found two in the coop last night after not having checked it for a few days because of family stuff. She's five and a half months old, for a half-silkie, that's fairly precocious - she gets it from her Mama, lol.

[dreamquestofunknownkadath]

Fashion

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Starflower enjoying her bath and listening to the neighbourhood.

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Jasmine: Me? No, I wasn't bullying Starflower away from the dust bath! Look how innocent I am! Oh, hi Khione...

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Little baby Starflower (formerly Pimpernel) is a whole grown up lady! Just a week off five months old.

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Sitting outside and Bluebell keeps stalking me in case food has appeared in the three minutes since she last checked.

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Roll call!

I realised that, because things have been A Bit Crap, I can't remember how many chooks I have at the moment. The best way to remind myself? Make a list! (In no particular order.)

Khione

Tempest

Starflower

Nerida

Jasmine

Sundrop

Snowdrop

Hellebore

Belladonna

Tansy

Winterberry

Marigold

Primrose

Busy Lizzy

Foxglove

Agapanthus

Delphinium

Violet

Pepperberry

Bluebell

Dahlia

Frodo

I think that's everyone. If I've forgotten anyone I'll add them to the list after I've gone out and done the morning feed! 😅

[bluebandana]

actually tumblr should pay ME for sticking around this long

[bonersniper]

Tumblr social security benefits for geriatric blogs

[sleep-]

I been here for 11 years where’s my damn pension

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Here's my new little lovely Jasmine with her deformed little feet, doing her best John Cleese Silly Walk bottom centre. 😉

She was staring at my phone while I was taking pictures so I told her to strike a pose, and she did! Obedient little lady. She seems to already know her name, too. And she's bonded very well with Nerida and Starflower, although she does like a bit of time to herself as well.

Her feet don't seem to cause her any issues, she doesn't limp, she can run and scratch perfectly fine, her feathers are in good condition and she's a good doer.

I didn't ask Janet if she's a specific breed, but she does look like she could be a mini Austra. She's certainly mouthy enough to be one when she wants attention! It'll be interesting to see if she becomes more of a top-of-the-pecking-order personality as she gets over the trauma of losing her friends to the hawk and grows up.

Also, if she is mini Austra, how she squares up with the full-size Austras! That could be interesting, since Bluebell is basically a cross between a Labrador and a T-rex in chicken form.

[look-achook]

I got a new chicken today!

She's a lovely little blue bantam, with deformed feet, though whether from malnourishment, birth defect, or flock bullying is unknown.

A friend had four given to her and a hawk took the other three. This little lady was fretting and not eating, so Janet asked if I would take this one. I put her in isolation since the pullets and Khione are supposedly sleeping in the grown-up coops now... only Nerida hopped the fence into the nursery pen at bed time, and then I had to let Starflower (formerly Pimpernel) go in as well because she was freaking out not being able to get to her sister.

I'll take some pics of the newbie (I've named her Jasmine) when I get a chance, but I'm in the middle of clearing out my Dad's house after he passed away a couple of months ago, and only home for today.

[look-achook]

Pepperberry is now an honorary bantam. She started hanging out in the bantam coop more when she went into a really heavy moult and Bluebell and Dahlia started bullying her of an evening. She just tried to roost in the Australorps' coop tonight and Dahlia tossed her out, so I had to let her out of the Australorp pen and back in with the bantams.

So she's just a really big bantam now, okay?

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Lavender is having a lovely time at the farm with all his new girlfriends! My friend who has him now is so happy with him and how good he is at sticking with the ladies.

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These photos really don't do justice to how BAMF Pimpernel's head floof really is.

Also, now that she's almost grown (11 weeks? I think, time is a blur right now.) I'm not sure she's really a "Pimpernel". My brain stumbles like I'm calling her the wrong name when I go to say it. Might need to meditate on what feels more right for her.