Chooktopia is complete. It's finished and three lovely black ladies have moved in. Our back yard is now a farm... of sorts, well, it's farm like, you know, there's hay and chooks and chook poo and chook noises, feathers... but eggs? Not yet.
Last weekend the whole family ventured to rural Brisbane (!? yes, not far from the city is a man who coaches tennis and keeps fowl). So not half an hour after leaving home we were standing in front of this beautifully clean and well kept pen...
... being asked which ones we wanted. We had already decided that Australorps were the chook for us which have been bred in Australia as quiet, large, backyard chooks who lay well. The woman in the wellies looked a little reluctant to do the chasing and the catching so choosing individual chooks seemed out of the question. We said, 'Three black ones... if you would... farm lady.' And after only a moment of squawks and flapping wings and flying feathers three black Australorps were boxed up and in the back of our car.
Next stop, Chooktopia, Fowl Palace of Dreams.
Fresh, clean straw... those sandpit toys need relocating now I suppose.
New straw in the EGG LAYING AREA, yet to be used for its purpose...
And in they went! A little nervous at first. They look scared, don't they?
But they settled in very well.
I do love them.
It's been a week now though. Tomorrow I want to open this door...
...put my hand in here...
... and pull out an EGG! or two.
The thing is, all the girls look the same and we can't tell them apart, so naming them is a bit of a challenge. These are the names that are on the table;
- Chooky
- Beaky
- Henny
- Lois
- Maria
- Dora
It may take a while before agreement is reached which doesn't really matter as we could call them anything, they wouldn't come.
I think they should all be called Eggless.
Any day now....
Chook: 'Huh? You want me to do what? Where?'
I really don't know how long to wait before I call for Mr Herriot.
