Fox

On Saturday December 17 last week, I was enjoying breakfast on the front verandah on a beautiful sunny day and I knew the chickens were scratching in the garden bed behind the house – all was lovely, it was about 9.15am.  I then heard a terrible noise coming from the chickens, the type of noise that told me no matter how fast I could run I would not get there soon enough.  I did get there soon enough to see a fox with Lucky in it’s mouth running up the garden stairs at the front of the house and into the bush.

Well time can stand still when you witness something beautiful and it can also stand still when you witness something terrible.  By now the other chickens had run back to their pen and for the next hour or so they stayed in their nesting box.  I couldn’t believe it, a fox coming into the house garden in broad daylight. 

It was a very  sad day in the chicken pen and we have now made the fence around their large pen twice as high (see photos) so they can no longer scratch around the house but they have the whole area around their pen, including the vegie garden and they seem happy with that.   They are locked in their roosting pen, within their large pen at night and we let them out in the mornings.   I'm trying to get two more chickens the same age as Ruby so she is not so alone (Abbey can be pretty bossey!) but that is proving to be very difficult. 

We hear the foxes at night in the bush behind the house, yelping and calling - previously we thought that sound was a Powerful Owl, now we know better!  Lucky was my friend.

Skeeta, Abbey and Ruby enjoying a dust bath. : )

Christmas Eve.

Today is Christmas Eve and we are having a lovely time relaxing. eating and playing with bub.  The Christmas Tree looks gorgeous and the presents underneath look very intriguing!

The chickens provided us with the most beautiful eggs for our Christmas goodies and today I made a pavlova which whipped up so well with their large, free range eggs.

I hope your white Christmas is very, very special, we are just hoping for a little sunshine! : )

An Unwelcome Visitor

We have had a goanna, various birds and bush turkeys visit the chickens but this visitor was not funny!  A few nights ago I was supervising the chickens at their bedtime and was standing with my back to the mesh wall.  Something made me turn around and there was a carpet snake right at my shoulder on the other side of the wire! It was very lucky it climbed the small passionfruit vine that has attached itself to the wire and didn't continue about a meter further on and find the open door.  It could have hidden in the pen and I would not have seen it as the door is open all day for the chooks to come and go as they please.

I knew I would not be able to sleep knowing there was a snake at the chicken pen even though it could not get in at night so we had to relocate it.  We phoned a snake catcher and he said he would be an hour and a half!  That meant I would have to stand in the rain getting eaten by mozzies with the torch on the snake keeping a track of him - that was ridiculous!  So we had to relocate it ourselves.

Greg (I really have an aversion to snakes) hooked it up and tossed it into a big bag we have for garden clippings.  We then drove about 3 kms to the forest park and released it.  Greg made sure it did not escape from the bag in the car as I told him if it did I would crash into a tree! 

Apart from that the chickens are very happy and enjoying themselves. : )

A quick storm

This morning I am cleaning out the chickens feed containers as they got wet late yesterday.  Just when I as tucking them in for the night a severe storm arrived.  It was pretty funny really, insead of patiently waiting for the chickens to sort themselves out and stopping Abbey from biting the chicks I picked up Skeeta and threw her into the nesting box (her spot) made sure the babies were under the nesting box (their spot) and grabbed Abbey and threw her in beside Skeeta (her spot)!  I then had to run for it as a bolt of lightning struck very nearby and the thunder scared us all half to death!  I said "Seeya, be good!" and ran inside. : ))))  The rain blew right across their pen and wet their food.  We had 26mm in 15 minutes and then it stopped.  The rain was SO heavy.

Would you believe that when the chickens all look settled and I leave, Abbey then gets out of the nesting box area and attacks the chicks in their area under the nesting box ????   So I usually stay awhile to make sure she stays put, I guess the storm would have done that for me last night.

A few days ago we had a second coldest December day on record, it got up to 19 degrees.  What a great day for getting into the kitchen and making a batch of fruit chutney!  Lovely bubbling pots on the stove, one with the chutney and one with the glass bottles to sterilize them.  Smelt amazing also!

Enjoy the snow guys!  I can only imagine how beautiful that would look!

Abbey is laying an egg every day and I think Skeeta thinks Abbey is doing enough work for the two of them as she has not layed an egg for about 2 weeks!  I'm glad  Ruby and Lucky are also Light Sussex, hopefully they will be as productive as Abbey.  Come on Skeeta!

Ruby "clucks" like an adult chicken occasionally and Lucky has a rough type of "cheep" : ))  Still hoping Lucky is a hen. 

This is one of their favourite places to rest during the day, next comes the decision to hop off and go bush or hop off and stay home.  Mostly they go bush!  They come and go like that as their water and their treats are in the home "paddock". 

Stay warm guys!  : )

Naughty Chickens

Today I found the chickens scratching for insects on the bush turkey mound!  Naughty birds!  I brought them all back home and told them not to go into the bush because there are snakes, foxes and ticks in there.  I don't think they listened.

Funny thing happened later, went I went outside to check on them there was a bush turkey in their house!  Hmmmm, I guess that is only fair after they scratched up his house!  : )

Who would have thought four chickens could find so much mischief each day! 

Today (Monday) is one of those hot days, 27 degrees doesn't sound that hot but the humidity must be pretty high, when everything in the forest goes quiet except for a light breeze in the tree tops.  All the birds have settled somewhere shady, just like the chickens and even the cicadas have stopped their shrill. 

Abbey, Skeeta, Ruby and Lucky are all resting together in heavy shade in the garden - I'm the crazy one rushing around doing all the work.  I love how the chickens chat to each other while they are resting.  Every now and then one will give a few quiet "clucks" and they will close their eyes only to open them quickly if a branch moves or something disturbs them.  Abbey just got up and chased Ruby and Skeeta, what a bossey boots!

The jury is still out on whether Lucky is a hen or a rooster, today he/she looks like a rooster and he/she has now got black speckles down his/her back that Ruby and Abbey don't have!    

Go easy on the slopes guys!   : )

Our new gate!

Another photo of Skeeta, Ruby and Lucky with the intruder.

Today is hot and dry and the chickens have been panting.  I put the sprinker on for awhile but they weren't really interested so  I moved the large water container from their pen and put it in the shade where they like to rest.  Abbey stood in it and had a drink so I went back inside.  Later I heard them making a lot of noise and I ran outside only to find a very large goanna also having a drink from the same container.  Yes, today is hot! 

I was afraid it would bite the chicks but they were definitely more interested in it than it was in them.  I opened the gate and let it out as it couldn't find it's way back out.  I was surprised how close the chickens went to it!   Just read that they will attack chickens and they are after the eggs, will have to keep an eye on that one.

Enjoy the cold weather!  : ) 

One thing I really enjoy seeing is a perfect hen shaped depression in the fresh straw when I collect the eggs, it's one of those fleeting moments like seeing a perfect shaped leaf or flower, it makes you stop for just a second.

In the photo we can see the different colours of the eggs, the light one is from Skeeta and the darker one is from Abbey, which is strange as Skeeta is the darker chicken and Abbey is the ligh Sussex. 

Still no rain here which makes it officially the driest November on record and this is a La Nina year (?) Parts of our garden are really suffering, so we are hoping for some rain very soon.

Enjoy the snowboarding over there!

One simple pleasure that never diminishes is collecting eggs from the nesting box each morning.  I always tell Abbey and Skeeta how clever they are!  And today I baked a pineapple, coconut, banana and rum cake using their eggs.  This cake uses olive oil instead of butter and light ricotta cheese, roasted coconut, vanilla and rum for icing.  Love trying different recipes!

The chickens are lying low today, they are all resting together in heavy shade keeping cool.  It is 29 degrees with only 49% humidity, a dry wind and no rain forecast.  The sort of weather I dislike most because I can see the garden wilting more and more each day which means I will have to start watering and that is time consuming.  Where is La Nina!  Hiding somewhere in the Pacific ready to pounce probably.  : )

Thanks for all the tea varieties, I am having a great time trying them all.  Today I had High Mountain Good Tea.  And they are right!

Today, Monday, I clean the house. I do it every Monday just as my mother, my grandmother and my great grandmother always did. I makes sense for me as I then have the rest of the week to tick off the other activities I have planned. I clean deliberately and with love as my house is my haven and the reward is walking through a clean and organised house with a gentle breeze blowing through the windows - it is extremely psychologically satisfying.

Today is hot and the chickens are scratching around in the shade enjoying themselves.   As we live in a rammed earth which has very thick earth walls with strategically placed  openings to promote flow through ventilation, inside is very pleasant indeed.

Later I must scoop the bamboo leaves out of our garden pond. Every Spring it sheds masses of leaves!! It is black bamboo and it looks gorgeous but??? Don't ever grow bamboo near a pond! We didn't know it dropped so many leaves and visitors often say "What beautiful bamboo!" Our response is often hmmmmmmm. More musings tomorrow!

 Skeeta, Ruby, Abbey and Lucky!   Ruby and Lucky are now abour 9 weeks old and growing fast.  They are free range chickens and spend every day scratching in the garden, having dust baths and generally enjoying life.  They have a beautiful large pen (photo to appear later) but they prefer to be outside.  Abbey is the "head chicken!"  She is big and the other chickens get out of her way!  : ))))