One chicken isn't the same as the next.

Seems its not as simple as getting chickens, put them in a coop and collect the eggs. within a week of putting them in their enclosure and despite clipping their wings, chook 1 (Startle) had escaped. We found her tapping on the laundry door and on opening it she hopped on in and scurried desperately around the house. What did this silly bird want. I let her wander and she mostly followed me about. I eventually took her back to the coop. Not long after there was a knock on the door. Silly Startle had knocked on the neighbours door, and my lovely neighbour delivered her back to us. Hubby put her back in the coop where she finally in a panic laid an egg. So the story continues as every 3 days we expect poor Startle to lose the plot as she freaks out about laying yet another egg. Cant blame her much, she lays rather large eggs. Problem is the silly thing taught the other 3 how to escape.

So thats 2 laying eggs and about 2 weeks later we now have a 3rd laying eggs.

Add to that, about a week ago i discovered that all four had lice, and it was not a small infestation. I guess thats what you get from having 2nd hand chooks with little history.

So anyway the chickens got a bit of a rep for being roamers. So much so that one kind neighbour turned up at our front door with a chook. Turned out it wasn't ours, but was lovely of him to return it. We raised the fences and had no escapes since. These chickens sure are entertaining. I was never one to think of chickens having much personality but they are proving me wrong.

First came the chickens, then came the egg.

So the ladies arrived at our home about 2 weeks ago. They weren't laying which i was told, but you always wonder will they lay. Did the seller tell me a furbie? Are they really under 12 months old. I guess you just never know whether you're being told the whole truth. Atleast one is debeaked so now i'm wondering if what i was told was the truth. But it doesn't matter. No matter where they came from especially if they came from somewhere not so nice, they have a good home now. And this week we got our first and our second eggs from them. Its such a thrill to get that first egg. The ladies are well and truly getting used to me bringing them their scraps. It's especially cold today and as it gets colder i'm sure egg laying wont be a regular thing but atleast i know they can do it.

My dog, because he's awesome

For those who know me even a little, you'll probably know my dog. And this blog without mention of him would be silly. His name is Oberon and he is my third 'child'. He is very well known in our town and he is a very happy, sociable dog. He is a borzoi. A somewhat rarer breed in Australia. He loves our kids, though he does play a bit rough with them. Recently my almost 5 yr old came home with some art. In the picture she had to say what makes her smile. Her answer: My dog chasing me. He often likes to treat her as a hurdle and sometimes doesn't clear her. oops. Still he loves them and they love him. He loves rough play from the adults, something i wasn't expecting from a borzoi, but glad he is like that. He is full of confidence.


Oberon was bought as a pet as we had no intention of showing. I started to become interested in showing and Oberon started to really show that he met the standard. We started showing him when he was 14 months old. He is doing well and we have our first Chamionship Breed Specialty in one week. Really looking forward to it.

I love my dog, I am the crazy dog lady. :)

The theory behind 2nd year, battery or rescue chickens.

Now we all know cage eggs are a bad idea and free range is optimal but you might be interested to know a little more about egg production.

A basic understanding will tell you that generally for every hen that hatches theres a rooster also. How many homes actually want roosters. Not many thats for sure and in many places you're allowed to own a few laying hens but certainly not roosters. I mean seriously who'd want them? They crow at very unreasonably hours as an unpredictable alarm clock, they can sometimes be a little grumpy and they certainly don't lay eggs.

So there are very few homes for roosters. Roosters hatched in breeding facilities are killed with one of two methods (carbon dioxide gassing or quick maceration).

Quick maceration ensures the chick is killed within a second and is considered more humane than gassing with high concentrations of carbon dioxide. Gassing results in gasping and head shaking and, depending on the mixture of gases used, it may take up to two minutes for the chick to die.

One of the reasons I am a vegetarian is because I don't believe killing animals is necessary to sustain life. If this is a part of why you are considering vegetarianism then you can see the issue with eating eggs. So what can you do?

While commercial egg production continues there are ways in a backyard coop to be more ethical. To remove ourselves from the cycle of rooster killing we can buy 2nd hand, ex-battery or rescue hens.

2nd year or 2nd hand hens are often advertised for sale in the trading post or online. Hens generally have a good 2-3 yrs of laying and the frequency of laying decreases every year. So, many small producers will sell their chickens when they are 1yr old as egg laying decreases. Many families also bought hens as pets for their kids and found the novelty wore off. 2nd year hens are generally about $10 each.

Ex-battery hens are hens that are being rehomed from battery farm facilities. They often need rehabilitation due to their previous living conditions. Most have few feathers left. Homesforhens.net is a wonderful website that arranges adoption of ex-battery hens. Without rescue these hens would have been slaughtered.

Rescue hens Like other animals, sometimes people can no longer care for or have their chickens and many rescue organisations look after them until they find a new home.

We have had our 2nd year chooks for less than a week. They aren't laying yet, like many at this time of year, but they are a delight.