Poo Chooks

Whilst unloading a trailer of horse manure for the compost heap, I was called away briefly, to find on my return a pair of orange chooks having a lovely poo-munching time.
Horse poo was being flung every where...yum!
Baby Hughie was nearby, watching with interest, but as always she was too slow to get in for her chop before I returned.
Next post will feature the contemporary comforts and the latest in furbishments at Chez Chook.

Dotty Update

Several predictions from the first post about Dotty have come true. Firstly, she was on the point of lay and has recently laid her first, (and so far only), egg. A strange long slim elongated pale brown egg, too large to fit into an egg carton. Secondly, she has grown into a large chook and has learnt to fly and has used her powers of flight for evil, escaping the perfectly adequate foraging grounds in the orchard and vegi garden for the pleasures of the forbidden gardens. No more though, because she has had her wings clipped, literally. Finally, she has not been content to stay on the bottom of the pecking order now that she is a full grown egg producing woman of worldly experience and has started persecuting Amber. Amber seems more bemused than worried when Dotty chases her and generally just dodges her because Amber is more interested in eating than chook politics. As yet the other chooks seem oblivious to Dotty except to give her the occasional peck. Dotty is hilarious and runs full pelt everywhere, head down, bum up and looks like a mini velociraptor. I promised that the next post would show the chooks' luxurious home, but neglected to photograph it, so the next post will now be of the two orange girls playing in horse poo! Stay tuned!

Cockatoo Chooks

We live in the middle of a Stringy Bark Forest and have many wild chooks living in the trees and many that visit seasonally. (Stringy barks are gum trees, gum trees are eucalypts). We are regularly invaded by hilarious noisy screeching Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. Here are a couple drinking from a puddle on top of a rainwater tank. Next post - The Chook House.

Zoe-scraggiest chook of all

Zoe is orange like Nadia but they can be easily told apart because her neck feathers are mostly missing. They get pecked out when she is roosting on the perch, mostly by Baby Hughie I suspect. Doesn't seem to bother her, she is a keen but placid chook who is often to be found committing evil acts in the forbidden gardens with Nadia. She is our second Zoe and our second oldest chook but still lays very regularly, giving us a brown medium to large egg most days. She is the easiest to handle and is happy enough to be held. Next post - visiting wild sulphur- crested cockatoo chooks!

Amber-Oldest Chook of All

Amber is the senior matron of the flock and is almost six years old. She is such a good chook and is still a regular layer, producing about 4 large pale brown eggs each week. We hope she lives many more years. Our previous oldest chook was Nana, who lived to be 14 years old. Unfortunately we have no photos of her. Originally her name was Mae West but as she aged she became known as Nana, because she always looked after the youngest chooks and taught them the various food sources and that it was wise to be nervous of the fox near sunset. Amber has taken over this role since Nana went to that chook house in the sky, and clucks around the flock late in the afternoon and trys to round them up and take them home to the safety of their yard. Nadia always ignores her! Next post -Zoe - scraggiest chook of them all.

Baby Hughie-Dumbest Chook Of All

As promised, here is Baby Hughie - Dumbest chook of all. She is a French Favorelle and was born on a neighbouring property on the mountain, a true local. Her real name is Fifi but she is always called Hughie because she is very dumb and reminds us of the cartoon character-Baby Hughie. Last year she had an attack of the meegrams and became even dumber, so dumb that when she tried to preen she would fall over, but she has fully recovered and is now fit and healthy but no smarter! Next post, Amber, the oldest chook of all.

Nadia-The Baddest Chook of All

Here is Nadia, the baddest chook of all. Above, said chook seems to be grazing in all innocence, free range. But; she has escaped and found the forbidden gardens and has dug up newly planted bulbs. On the right, here she is in full flight, escaping through the cat flap after being busted eating the cats' food, again! She is very bad. A leader of the flock, if only she would use her powers for good! She is a mature hen and was rescued from the Mt Barker fodder store as a pullet where she was in a small cage, which as we now know is the only way to contain her. Imprisonment seems to have engendered a constant yearning for greater freedom, because from the day she was introduced to the flock, she has escaped regularly and has developed an increasing repertoire of evil deeds and is always willing to teach the other chooks the evil of her ways, although as yet, she has kept her knowledge of the catflap and cat food, to herself. Next post - 'Baby Hughie', the dumbest chook of all!

Meet Abby

As promised, here is the next of our 'chooks', Abby who is also new to our flock. We bought her at the same time as Dotty, last month. She is already laying regularly, about three out of every four days she lays a smallish brown egg. Note that her comb is well developed and bright red. She has beautiful eyes, unlike the beady avoricious raptor- like eyes of Nadia, who you will meet in the next post. Abby is a calm little chicken and fitted into the flock quite easily, maybe because there is another black hen, 'Amber', with whom she spends a lot of time . Together they roam around the orchard and the vegi garden, foraging for edibles. Like all the chooks, their favourite place of all is under the cherry trees. More about Amber in subsequent posts.
Abby is named after my eldest niece who lives in 'The Barossa'. Her family has had a few goes at keeping chickens, but they have bad dogs, so for the meantime they are 'chookless', but get to enjoy our chooks when they visit.
Next post - the dreaded 'Nadia', baddest chook of all!

Dotty-Youngest Chook of All

There is a small village in the Central Adelaide Hills of the Mount Lofty Ranges in the State of South Australia.

Above this village on the slope of one of the northerly spurs of Mt.Carey live some chooks, which is what chickens are known as in Australia.

As this blog develops you will experience the pleasure that we enjoy in the company of these mountain chooks.

Post by post, I will introduce you to our six chickens, (no roosters), and show you their world and the lives they live in their mountain home.

Today's post features 'Dotty', the newest chook. We bought her at the Lobethal Poultry Breeders' annual sale at the Mt Pleasant Showgrounds last month. She is young, just a pullet and she may be considered to be what is known as 'point of lay', because she hasn't laid an egg yet. Notice that her comb is small and not very colourful.

Dotty is shy and at the bottom of the pecking order but has learnt to fit in. I suspect she will make the older, bossier chooks sorry that they picked on her when she matures, because she looks like she is going to be a big chook.

Her name is derived from her breed, which is a lacy Wyandotte.

Also note the black head of 'Abby', Dotty's friend, in the corner of the photo. She is new also and will feature in my next post.