Chook Report

Hello!

Here's a special chook report on our girls.

While sharing comments with Debbie when she visited my last post, I'd mentioned our chooks were now in moult and were having a little break from egg laying.

They were all a bit unco-operative when I produced the camera, but I soon sweet-talked them into it.

This is how they're looking:

This hen earnt herself, when a youngster, the rather unfortunate name of "Stupid" but, turns out, she's pretty smart in many ways.
Anyway, as you can see, she's lost many feathers and looks patchy.

 Here's a close up of the new pin feathers that are starting to re-grow on her:

Those little brown nubby ends to the left of the photo are the fluffy starts to new feathers.

This is Alice.
Alice is not happy!
But once her beautiful plumage re-grows, she'll be happy again.

They wouldn't co-operate for photos, everyone went every which way.
Alice (still sulking) continued to mooch against the gate!

We have two hens who look exactly the same, only their personalities differed.  So, they were named Good Brenda and Bad Brenda.
Fortunately, their combs are each slightly different now that they've matured, so that helps in identification.
This is Good Brenda and her new paler feather patterns are emerging as she starts to come out of her moult.

"Whose breast feathers are these" I'm asking.
L to R Bad Brenda, Chookie (aka Henny Penny) and Good Brenda

Well, that's the current situation.  Thanks very much for your interest Debbie and I hope you enjoyed our chookyard news :D)

Cutie Fuzzballs having lessons ...

Hello!

I usually like to have visited everyone before I post something new, but, well, I haven't 💐

There are so many lovely blogfriends out there, all with such interesting posts to read... and I like to take my time with each one so, currently, I'm a week behind in my visiting/reading - but I eventually catch up 👓 😊 👓

The chicks are growing and we take weekly photos of their progress and this morning I couldn't resist sharing two new learning sessions in their little lives:

"The Dust Bath"

Chookie shows her chicks how to dig a nice hole in a sunny spot where the dirt/dust has warmed up.

Then she shows them how to wiggle and fluff the dirt up amongst her feathers.
One chick is keen to get in beside Mumma and have a go.  The other chick is .... "what???  no way!!"

"Here we go, jump in"

"That's the way" says Mumma.  One chick is thoroughly enjoying herself (we're pretty sure they're both hens).
The other chick is "I can't believe you want us to roll around in ..... dirt!!"

... and so the Dust Bath lesson ends - for the day.  It all happens again the next day, and the next, and so on!

"Perching"

This is Chookie's favourite perching spot... on top of the compost heap.
She can look through the wire and see what we're up to in the backyard.

So, it was no surprise to see her giving her chicks a 'perching' lesson at this spot...  but what we were surprised at was that it was happening already!  They're only 4 weeks old and their little winglets must have flapped like crazy to get up that high:

Perching is something they both love!

~ Thanks for popping by.

I hope these cutie pair of fuzzballs make you smile ~

... and a pink carnation ~ Happy PPF!

Hello! 

I hadn't painted anything this week, but there's been a lot of playing around with chooks and chickens though.  (A little update photo is at the end of this post).

Had a look through my photos and I kind of felt in a Carnation mood.  Don't you just love that beautiful cinnamon/peppery/sweet smell of Carnations or their smaller variety... Dianthus!

I made these cards below for loved ones last year and am delighted to share photos of them as my entry in Paint Party Friday:

They're all watercolour with inkpen on watercolour paper

Mumma and her two chicks are doing really well.
Their favourite game is to climb on to her back and slide down.
They were all enjoying a lovely sun bath in this snap:

Linking to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday, where the happiest of artists gather... and everyone's welcome! 

Chicks!! ~ Happy PPF

Hello!

It's pretty much "Chick Central" here at home.  

You may remember from an older post  that our Chookie was sitting on, what we hoped were, 4 fertile eggs.

Happily,  2 were and they hatched this week.  They're a couple of lively little bundles of cuteness.

Here's our first photo of the first chick:

I gently lifted up Chookie to see where the "cheep cheep cheeping" sounds were coming from.
We'd heard of chooks shedding their chest feathers to add to their nest, and she had certainly done that.  

Seeing that sweet little chick with her proud Mum certainly inspired my entry for this week's Paint Party Friday:

"The First Chick"
Watercolour Pencil and inkpen in Journal Page

... and the next day, another cutie appeared, but not without a mini-drama though.

Hubby had gone to check first thing and found the second chick out of the nest - fairly limp and lifeless.  He kept it warm in his hands and we decided there was nothing to lose if we popped it back under Chookie and see what, if anything, happened.
I quickly went to get my "peck-proof " gloves and under it went.

It worked!!  So now, there were two:

Within a day they were running around and eating mash and chick crumbles with hearty appetites.

Update 10th June 2017:  The video**  below wasn't very successful unfortunately.  Can't work out how to do it properly with Blogger, so I've added a couple of photos I took this morning.  Lol, as I said... it's Chook Central in our little world at the moment!! :

Here's a very short (10 sec) video**  I took today of their first outing into the larger outside yard.

They certainly enjoyed a little play in the sun and some exploring in the grass:

 Linking to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday, where the happiest of artists gather... and everyone's welcome! 

Daily happinesses

Hello!

We've been enjoying beautiful Autumn days  -  sunny, with a coolish nip in the air as the sun goes down.
I hope your days have been equally as beautiful in their own way  😊

A happy little camera effect of the sun shining through the trees as I snapped the carpet of leaves from our Tibouchinas

A lovingly made gift:

Can't hide my grin... as I show off my gorgeous shawl crocheted for me by our Dear Daughter.  It's so cosy.  Best of all, it was made with love and feels like a nice warm hug xx

Painting is also a happiness:

Acrylic on watercolour paper.
I followed the instructions of Angela Anderson and added my little bit extra

Here's the 'before' shot

... and completed, done in Watercolour, ink pen with a gold border

These are pre-prepared cards.  Some can hang around for a while, but its nice to have the backgrounds done and dry in readiness for when the urge to paint hits :D) 

My version of a rainforest!

Linking to Paint Party Friday 

Now to breakfast!

A daily habit for years now ... a morning milk shake with raw egg and fruit.
Always a happiness!  

A chookie update:

This is Chookie (aka Henny Penny).  She came to us by chance at the beginning of this year (I posted about it here).

Over the past few months, Chookie has become broody quite often and, now that we have another 4 hens (Alice being one of them)  and a rooster, we've placed fertile eggs from Alice underneath her. She's got one more week or so until they're due to hatch.
Chookie is so keen to sit on as many eggs as she can that we're pretty sure she encourages Alice to lay her eggs in the same laying box that she's in.  To get around that,  I've marked the originals with a pencil and then I can remove any freshly laid ones that she's gathered underneath her:

I waited until Chookie went for her daily dustbath and feed before I marked her eggs... she's a very protective mother already and dishes out a sharp peck when I check her for extra eggs!

Meet Roosterboy and Alice

All the chooks give us a lot of happiness each day.  Their antics are so funny at times, and they have both of us well trained ;D)

Birdy Happiness:

Here's a lucky shot through our kitchen window!
A male Satin Bower Bird giving a gift of a flower to the female.
It's part of their mating ritual and we're sure his bower must be nearby.

Evening settling down:

The Galahs like to settle for the evening in these treetops just over from our back door.  They're noisy but I enjoy watching them.
I took this photo quite a few years ago but I love it and, watching them again the other day, I remembered it and thought I'd share it here. 

Linking  to Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday:

Floral Happiness:

My darling hubby built window boxes on our house for some of my pot plants.  These two photos are of one of them.

I often forget to water this particular succulent and yet it still gives   such a beautiful display.  Aren't they marvellous plants!

A knock on the door this morning:

and it was our neighbours, from across the street, popping in to say hello and with a gift of these beautiful flowers for no particular reason other than an act of friendship!  What a lovely way to start our day :D)

Linking  to Riitta's Floral Bliss:

 

  I'm now looking forward to getting around and visiting everyone over the next little while.