2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 26,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that many [...]

Moving Chickens

Hi there keepers, it’s been a while since I posted, there has been alot going on. Our landlord moved to Australia leaving our house with a property manager. She immediately put the rent up by over 10%, (her fee), and then instructed us we had ten days to remove our chickens from the property, quoting [...]

The Cost Effectiveness of Chicken Keeping

Hi chicken keepers, or prospective chicken keepers, I recently read a report from an american publication, about a dispute between neighbours in the city of Salem, where the city by-law says the keeping of farm animals is prohibited, domestic pets only.  The owner of the hens is disputing that they are penned the whole time, and are [...]

Breeds We Have

Hi Keepers, just thought for those who may be intersted in the different breeds and a bit of history thrown into the bargain.   WYANDOTTE GOLDEN LACED  The golden laced wyandotte is a golden color with black around the edge of every feather and black tail. Joseph McKeen of Wisconsin was the originator of the [...]

Lice and Mites

Hi there chicken keepers, or fans of keeping chickens, today has been de-lousing day for the girls, after the death of poor Nellie, I thought I should give the girls an M.O.T or fitness check, they do have a few lice but nothing major, however just to be on the safe side, I bought some [...]

Nancy’s Secret

Well hello there readers, firstly I must say, I was bowled over by the response from the ‘ thankyou for your support ‘ note,  thanks again, but on to the serious business of the broody Nancy. As some of you might read nancy has been disappearing for days on end, only breifly coming back on [...]

Has Nancy Gone Broody?

Hi there reader, low and behold as I looked out of the window down into the garden this morning, there she was, I called to her with the same sort of tone you would use after loosing a friend at a festival , ‘ Nancy!!! , there you are ‘. It was great to her [...]

In the Big House

Hi there keepers, as some of you may know we have 3 new chicks, one of which only just arrived three days ago, as we had to swap Maria the rooster, for Manuella the Minorca hen, which has caused more pecking and general trouble at mill, so in an attempt to force them all to [...]

Maria’s replacement

Hi there keepers, as some of you may have been following the Maria saga, well it come to it’s conclusion yesterday, it had got to the point where we could no longer ignore the obvious signs that maria was and is a rooster. Not having this breed before we weren’t quite sure, but in the [...]

Confirmed what we Knew deepdown

Well folks thats it! Maria has gone to a kind of rooster heaven, no she hasn’t died, just back home really, we went with her in a box out to the breeder where we got her, and as they say ‘ it took just one look’, rooster!, said Raewyn. Funny how you will ignore lots [...]