Am I boring you yet with all these chicken posts?
Just one more to complete the set – I thought those of you who were following their antics might like to know what we eventually named them all.
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Top of the pecking order is Queenie, full working title “Queenie the Meanie”. She rules the roost like the Emperor ruled the Dark Side.
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Bertha, with her crooked comb and fierce eyes, is Queenie’s enforcer. She does most of the pecking in the flock. She is by far the smartest chicken, and Pete’s favourite, as she’ll eat from his hand and likes to follow him around the garden. She’s also the healthiest, moves the fastest and digs up the most worms. I once watched her in amazement as she tried to catch flying insects, Mr Miyagi-style.
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Harriet, who is so similar to Queenie that it’s sometimes difficult to tell them apart (she has a marginally lighter coloured head), sits third in the order. This little gang of three can often be seen eating together, to the exclusion of the others, although Harriet will be pecked away once there’s less food to go around.
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My favourite chicken is Francesca. With her distinctively dark head and red comb, she is by far the most beautiful lady in the group. She’s a bit of an enigma, and it’s hard to be sure exactly where she sits in the hierarchy. I’ve never seen her pecked, nor have I seen her pecking anyone else. All the other chickens leave her alone, but perhaps that’s because she’s learnt to keep out of their way.
Frannie doesn’t particularly like to fly, so will try her hardest to roost anywhere other than the raised platform. We’re perpetually having to pull her out of the laying box, and she once tried to roost on a stick on the ground.
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Timid little Maggie, with her pecked head, clearly hasn’t learnt how to get out of everyone’s way like Francesca has. We’re not sure what goes on in the roost each night, but we suspect she doesn’t know her station, and gets pecked mercilessly for stepping out of line. Chickens are like the mean girls at school – if I watch them for too long, I start having flashbacks…
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Right at the bottom of the pecking order is little Rosemary. She’s not shy. Clearly the youngest in the group, she can be downright annoying at times, running around the pen like a mad thing and bodyslamming into the dominant hens while they’re feeding. She has big yellow legs and I suspect she’ll end up the largest of them all.
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Aside from the pecked heads, our ladies seem very happy, and they certainly have healthy appetites. We now have four hens a-laying, which provides us with two to four eggs a day. They looove leftovers, particularly pasta and rice, although Pete won’t let me feed them too many carbs, as he insists it’s very bad for them to get fat. I guess watching your weight really is the bane of females everywhere!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Go Maggie! Don’t let B. F. Bertha push you around!
Sigh…Bertie actually seems to have it in for Rosemary at the moment. Tries to stop her eating, even if she’s not interested in the actual food!
I love naming pets because you can use all the names you love but wouldn’t inflict on your children. Isn’t this just the same picture over and over :)
Well, particularly in this case, since we only have sons.. :)
I promise the photos are of six different chickens! We just couldn’t name them until I could tell them apart… :)
Lovely profile – nice to get to know the ladies.
Our 6 girls are still giving us 4-6 eggs a day event though it is freezing cold here and they are well past their laying prime now – wonderful girls!!
I had heard that, too, about not giving too many carbs to chooks.
My ladies will kill for a bit of protein – not surprising when you think of how much is in an egg – the speed at which bacon bits and meat scraps vanish is boggling!
I like the chicken posts most of all. I find them fascinating and they are such lucky girls. What a pity all chickens can’t live like this.
Amanda, that IS good to know – everyone says the ISAs will only lay for about two years, but I’ve read that if they’re well looked after and non-stressed, they can keep laying for much longer than that, just not as frequently. And that would be so completely fine with us! Our hens are still very young – I’ve seen fully grown ISAs and they’re much bigger with really big combs…
Deb, thank you so much for saying that! I’m a bit worried about turning into the mad chicken lady, although all our friends with chooks are as bad as we are, so maybe it’s something about the chooks themselves that inspires so much affection and obsession! :)
I love other people’s chickens. I love that you call them chooks ( I’d never heard that before). I love the healthy beauty of your chooks. And I think that your names are all well chosen! :)
Thanks Heidi – “chooks” is very Australian, I think, although it’s possible it’s come from the UK…
I know in the world of chicken experts, I’m going to sound like a dope.
But I thought they all looked the same.
How wrong can you be.
Each with their own little personalities. How charming is that.
& there’s nothing boring about blog post on your poulets at all, Celia.
Lovely post Celia! I wonder, in an idle way, have the chickens profiled your family?
I am sure our dogs call us all sorts of things in private….
Gill, hardly a dope – as I mentioned above, it took us this long to name them because I couldn’t tell them apart! But I can now, and you’re right, they really do have quite distinct personalities!
Re how they look – we think Queenie, Bertha and Harriet are from the same clutch – they’re certainly very similar in appearance and behaviour. Rosemary and Maggie are physically very similar to each other – big yellow legs and small combs, and quite fair. Francesca is the odd one out – she’s like a dark Italian beauty, hence the name!
Jo, they certainly have got us figured. They carry on a treat when I go out the back door, knowing that I’ll usually have food for them, but far less so when Pete or the boys go outside. Funny thing – Pete’s trained them to sit down. He places a firm hand on the middle of their backs, and they sit right down on command! :)
Hehe actually I love these chicken posts Celia! And I stand by my suggestion of a chook yard soap opera complete with dramatic music! ;)
That was by far, the most entertaining blog post I have read in a very long time! I want to own a chicken now!
Wow it’s so cute that you name all the chickens and remember how they are… I’ve never done that to my chickens at home in Thailand…ummm there are 40 of them…so it’s quite a challenge! :)
I love the idea of your chickens sitting on command :)
and in another idle moment, I just googled chicken training and I am falling about laughing at the You Tube videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi80y6FP21s&feature=related for example….
and this shouldn’t be too difficult either – the chicken weave http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeJ06sg5MHI&feature=related
Lorraine, it certainly does get a little soap opera-ish out there sometimes!
Amy, thank you so much! :) You’re in Sydney, aren’t you? I recently found a place which lets you rent a couple of chickens and a moveable chicken tractor for six weeks, and then if you like it, you pay the balance and keep it. I haven’t tried them (so this is not a personal recommendation!), but it certainly sounds like a good idea…
http://www.rentachook.com.au/
Tes, I’ve had trouble distinguishing six, I don’t think it would be possible with 40! :)
Jo, that second one in particular – the chicken weave – is fantastic! Must show Pete..thanks!
Oh they are all so gorgeous! I grew up having chooks and miss them now that I don’t live at home anymore! Keep up the chicken posts!
Sheela, thank you! I can understand missing them – it’s pretty easy to get very attached to them! :)
Oh, dear, that’s it! You’re now officially an obsessed chook lady, Celia. This is a great honour. Stand proud. There are many of us out there…often where you least expect it. :) I’m impressed with your ability to tell your girls apart…it does take some time to notice all of their subtle markings and behavioural quirks. I like the names you’ve chosen..especially Francesca for some reason…
Love your updates on how the chucks are doing and glad to know they all have names now. It’s so interesting watching to see personalities develop – not that I know many chickens.
Chris, I’ll look out for my badge in the mail… :)
Choclette, I’ve been astonished to see how distinct their personalities are. I’ve been anthropomorphizing badly, and often find myself chastising them from the sidelines for not being nice to each other! :)
beautiful!
Wow Celia, your brood of chooks are just beautiful! I’ve always wanted chooks but am worried that it’ll take too much time to clean. You have inspired me further to turn the dream into reality.
How did you build your chook shed? It looks like your chooks are very well protected!
Hi Soy, thanks for dropping by! We built our chook dome based on a design in Linda Woodrow’s book that I talked about here. If you google “chook dome”, I think you might find plans. It’s designed to be rotated around beds to allow the chooks to fertilise and rotorvate the soil. It’s not an actual coop, as there are no enclosed walls, but the top is well tarped and the birds roost very high up, which keeps them quite sheltered.
If we weren’t planning to use the chooks for gardening, I think we’d buy or build a regular wooden coop with a run. My friends Christina and Wendy both have those, and their chickens are very happy in them.