It's Chick Chick Chick Chick Chicken day....

[OllieC]

...and guess who's the most excited?!!?!

[OllieC]

[manicscousers]

glad you're getting your chooks, olliec..enjoy them, we do ours  ;D

[OllieC]

Well, they've arrived... Annabelle got to do the naming, and Little Miss Chatterbox, Fifi & Chicken appear to be settling in well... apart from it's pouring rain, they're staying outside under their shelter, and it's getting dark. I really hope they work out what the great big house thing is for before darkness fully descends!

[littlebabybird]

ollie ollie where are the pictures?
lbb

[OllieC]

Not the best pictures... but here they are!

The blackish one is Fifi, The Ginger one is Little Miss Chatterbox & The sort of speckled one (my favourite) is Chicken...

[carolinej]

Beautiful birds!

cj :)

[twinkletoes]

Well Ollie - did they?  Did they work out what the great big house thing was before it got dark?   Lovely hens - wish we could have some.   :( :(   Pics are great.  Does Annabelle love them?
twinkletoes

[OllieC]

Well Ollie - did they?  Did they work out what the great big house thing was before it got dark?   Lovely hens - wish we could have some.   :( :(   Pics are great.  Does Annabelle love them?
twinkletoes

No, they made it absolutely clear that they have been selected for their egg laying abilities, and not for their brains!  ::)  We put them to bed, said nitey-nite.... And I only went back to check on them a couple of times...

Annabelle thinks they're great - they're really friendly already and she's got them to take a couple of worms from her... which of course they love!

[Hyacinth]

I'm going to haunt this thread Ol ;D Know zilch about hens but I'm wanting/demanding? lots of pics and progress reports of all of them (including Annabelle and the worms) please? Ta.

[Lauren S]

Awwww they look luffly. What lovely pets for your daughter. Plus she gets *gifts* each morning too  ;D

[Taters]

would look very nice with bacon across the back

...a bit like a football scarf of course....thinking of West Ham and the claret and blue  ;-)

[littlebabybird]

Ollie at school we have a web cam in the bluetit box,
do you think you could rig one so Annabelle (and you) can see them sleeping?
lbb

[Old bird]

Brilliant Ollie - they look really lovely!  Love the names too! Not quite sure about your favourite one "chicken" lacks a bit of imagination don't you think!!!

Are they point of lay? So have you had any eggs yet.  I bet Annabelle checks them as often as possible!

Love the eglu - very pretty!

Keep us posted!

Old Bird
;)

[OllieC]

Well, they're clearly not as thick as I thought - and managed to tuck themselves up in bed last night. Clever clever girls!

It looks like Chicken is going to be the boss, although none of them appear to be too concerned about rank...

Lish - no problem! Will try to get some snaps of A feeding them tonight. She got her first peck yesterday but took it well...

Taters - If you cooked one of these with a couple of slices of bacon, you'd get more meat from the bacon than the bird. There's not much eating on these birds, I'm afraid! No point eating a POL pullet that hasn't even begun laying! But I'll let them know!  :)

lbb - I like the idea of putting a chicken cam up... shall investigate!

OB - I quite agree about the names. I wanted to have a theme - all Fifi characters or Mr men, but I made the mistake of giving Annabelle a choice and she appears to have inherited the "Bloody Minded" gene from me - she never back down without an argument... You reap what you sow (serves me right!)! She still calls "Thurston" "George" because that's what she wanted to call him when he was born. She even told the girls in nursery that we'd changed his name! Chicken is a rubbish name...  ::)

They are POL, 22 weeks old, so perhaps in a couple of weeks we'll be getting all eggy!

[OllieC]

A couple more piccies:

Maggie (the cat) is not entirely covinced about them yet... For now she's watching them & as long as they stay in their cage, she'll let it pass... The Nerine's quite nice too!


"Chicken" up close:


"Little Miss Chatterbox":

[Old bird]

They are really beautiful birds Ollie - in a busy world it is far too easy to miss the intricate beauty of something fairly humble like the markings on a chicken's feathers.  Quite, quite remarkably beautiful - each feather with its distinct shape/pattern/colouring.  Stunning!

I now - probably because I am older?! - take time to look at simple things like tiny flowers that make up a flower head, each one with its own little flower identical to its neighbour and the other 100 or so that make up a flower head  Nature has a lot of very natural beauty to offer - if only you take the time to look!

Old Bird
;)

[twinkletoes]

OB - you shall now be known just by me as Wise Old Bird.  You are quite right ....... just take time out to REALLY look at that flower, spiders web, animal markings..........oh joy.
twinkletoes

[asbean]

Just watch how the chicken's feathers move in symmetry - it's a beautiful sight

[OllieC]

I agree, OB. "Thought for the day" a few weeks ago said that Buddhists are encouraged to reflect on the instant in which we live, and to focus on all the beauty that nature brings forth in that moment. Apparently Christianity does the same, although it's often overlooked. We spend so much time living in the future that we forget to enjoy the now.  "A meditation on a feather" - I like that.