Our last flock of chooks reminded us of Morris Dancers and Ninjas.
This lot are the Fat Fairies. They have lovely temperaments – the group is harmonious with very little squabbling. And with the onset of spring, they’ve been eating and laying like crazy.
As with all fairies, they’re hard to capture in photos – there were only seven unblurry shots out of the 132 I took yesterday…
All the surplus rainbow chard in the garden ends up here…
The fairies adore old sourdough…
They’re currently laying at their peak – we’re getting four to five eggs a day (which explains the frenetic cake baking of late)…
Last week, one brave hen laid a 105g egg! We couldn’t figure out who it was – no-one appeared to be walking funny that day…
It’s a long weekend here in Sydney, and the sun is shining!
Hope you’re all having a great weekend too!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Wow! That is one big chook egg! I wonder if it will be a double yolk? Have you heard there is a lady in Alice Springs who has been ordered to remove her five roosters from her premises? Who would want to live next to someone in an urban setting with FIVE roosters crowing at all hours of the day and night? That would be something to crow about!! :)
Ardys, as you now know, it really WAS a double yolker, our very first! Here in Sydney, it’s illegal to keep roosters in suburbia – that’s a good thing too, I think. The chooks can get quite noisy as they are!
Your fat fairies look so warm and homely. I would love to have some chookies here at my house but we live in a rural south coast village where wild life abounds, in particular bush rats. Of course they are very pretty, dear things but they have no respect for boundaries and have eaten through the fly screen on my kitchen window to get to the tomato basket when there is no more produce to be had in the garden. Neighbours did set up a chook run but the local wild life went into a feeding and breeding frenzy. A very short experiment. I am content just to admire your busy, brown persons. An other beautiful day in Paradise here on the south coast. A BBQ roast of pork with all the trimmings happening for lunch. Not much creative cooking happening this week though as we are packing for a month in Sicily starting next weekend. I’m hoping to learn more about raising and cooking tomatoes while we are there … as well as soaking up the beautiful scenery. Best wishes to you and yours for a happy long weekend.
Sicily! How wonderful Sandy, have a fabulous time! It would be hard to have chooks where the wildlife is a threat to them or their food supply!
Ah they’re gorgeus – I miss having chickies :( We somtimes used to get a whopping great egg like that (once it was an egg within an egg) or one with a soft shell – aren’t hens clever!
Tanya, we have one chook who is laying thin shelled eggs, which is a bit of a worry as that’s what usually does them in – laying an egg which cracks inside them and gives them peridonitis. I’m hoping she’ll get better (we’re not sure who it is), but apparently it’s a common problem for layer hens to have dodgy shell glands.
Can you give them all a supplement of some sort in their feed? Keeping my fingers crossed for you.
They’re getting tons of grit and the other four girls seem to be laying fine. We seem to get one with a dodgy egg shell gland in every flock, sadly.
What a shame :(
You can’t beat Isa Browns for production of eggs and good temperament, as well as scrap recycling. Mine aslo love silverbeet and rocket. The silverbeet is so rampant at present, it’s grows in the pathways. My daughter brings a bucket of scraps from her house in exchange for a dozen eggs, so everything goes around. The beauty of chooks.
These are actually Lohmann Browns and although they’re the same mix as the ISAs, this batch actually seem more robust and better tempered than the ISAs were. I’m really not sure what the difference is, something legal about having to be from certain breeders or stock or something.
Hi having just joined two days ago it was great to see the chickens.
Here in Tasmania (Burnie) we too have a long weekend and the weather
is wonderful. i am seriously thinking of getting four chickens soon and will have to decide on how to house them!
We love our chooks – this is our second flock. We bought them from City Chicks and were very happy with the service: https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2013/09/20/city-chicks/
I miss chooks so much, having lost them in a fire in February. Thanks for your wonderful photos.
I’m so sorry to hear that! I hope you get to have some again soon.
Wow that is a large egg! It must be great having fresh eggs, I love making poached eggs and always get asked what the secret is in getting the eggs to hold together. I say forget vinegar as I think you always taste it, the most important thing is using the freshest eggs you can get. Lucky you and your family all those yummy cakes :) hope you are having a lovely long weekend x
Stefanie, fresh eggs are amazing for poaching, but older eggs make better pavlovas! Had a great weekend thanks, hope you did too!
Thanks Celia, I never knew that about pavlova. I love cooking but I’m not a confident baker, I always buy pavlova but I think I might give it a try :)
Stef, here’s the recipe we use – it always turns out really well, with a nice fat marshmallowy centre!
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/05/12/pavlova/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2012/11/06/birthday-pavlova/
Lovely! We’re hoping to have chooks again soon, and staying with mum and dad recently and seeing their chooks I was reminded about all the cute things about them like how proud they sound every time they lay an egg!
They are funny aren’t they? Showing off like that.. :)
They look so happy and content Celia x
Jane, we love having them in the garden!
Lovely chooks , Celia. I would love some. They could eat all the silverbeet. We have to live in one place first though.
Glenda, they would LOVE your place! Maybe the neighbours could feed them while you’re away?
Oh my, that is one amazingly large egg! Whatchya making with that one, love?
I boiled it up Lizzy and used it for egg and mayo on toast!
Wow! That chicken deserves a medal Celia! I saw a monster size egg on telly that they cracked open and found another fully shelled egg inside- identical twins? :)
Love your chookies, still suffering chicken envy :( xox
This one was a double yolker Becca!
well, the chooks are something wonderful. thanks for sharing. loving the huge egg….
Thank you! They’re great fun at the moment!
That is one very large egg! I wonder if it had double yolks- I used to get eggs from a farmer and every third egg or so was a double yolk. Beautiful pictures- glad some turned out clear and usable!
Heidi yep, our first double yolker! I was very impressed!
I love your chooks. It’s great to see them looking so healthy and happy and laying well.
Deb, layer chooks never seem to last that long, but these girls are currently at their prime of life!
Lovely chooks Celia. Hope your long weekend is fabulous.
:-) Mandy xo
It was Mandy, thanks! Hope you had a good one too!
It’s a while since we saw the chooks. That egg layer deserves a medal!
Sally, I can’t even tell which chook it was!
We have 4 fat happy chickens at the moment – and they’re laying like crazy too. Except for one who is hiding under the house hoarding her eggs. My daughter calls her ‘cave chook’ 😀
The nice thing about these brown hybrid chooks is that they’re very unclucky. I’d hate to get pecked when collecting eggs! :)
I felt pain looking at the size of that egg! I love your fairies! How wonderful that they’re a harmonious group and how lovely to be collecting so many eggs. I take just as many photos of my dogs! xx
Charlie, your girls always look so calm and relaxed! I’m not surprised to hear that it’s hard to get them to pose for a photo though! :)
I saw that egg on Instagram and couldn’t believe one poor little chook had laid it. A lovely new bunch of chicks they are Celia
Tania, they’re great fun!
I hope she doesn’t lay an egg that size every day. Wowza. She’d be walking all wobbly! Beautiful chooks.
Nope, it was a one-off! Although a few days later we had a 95g egg!
I can’t wait till all my chickens are laying, 105g that’s huge!!!! :-)
We’ve never had one that size before!
4-5 eggs a day, your chickens are in a roll! Happy chickens well fed by a kitchen great :)
~Do drop by and say hello :)
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Julie, they really are. They’d slowed up quite a bit over winter, but they’re back laying in force now!
Hahaha- “no one appeared to be walking funny”- I’m sure whoever it was still is feeling the pain of that egg despite being able to walk okay.
Honestly, I don’t know how she got it out…
If I was a fairy chook, I would lay massive eggs with all of that gorgeous spinach and sourdough! My chooks have finally settled down to life without excess roosters and know that they can wander around our property with impunity now. The problem is, mine are all prima donna’s and insist on being treated as such. The poor remaining rooster can be heard growling at all hours of the day as they take umbrage with each other and start telling each other off. “That’s MY nest…”; “I saw that bit of bread first!”; “They chopped that insect filled wood for ME!” etc. and they are always protesting, complaining and calling out for the rooster to moderate. Poor Yin spends his days growling and hiding ;). We had 100 eggs in the fridge the other day and I don’t even eat them! Our friends and neighbours get cartons of eggs over the fence. Spring eggs are like end of Summer zucchini’s ;). We have gorgeous sunshine as well and we have been redesigning Sanctuary now that we have finally possum proofed it and are just about to plant out all of our summer veggie seeds. I will be trialling growing peanuts this year as well as some cucamelons and other interesting things. It’s the first time I have managed to get my act together and plant seeds. Bunnings won’t be making a profit out of MY garden this year ;)
Fran, I think you might need to consider becoming an egg eating vegan – maybe you could be a veggan? :)
Lucky chickens! They are used to great produce, they are spoiled! What a big egg,..;waw! :)
Sophie, it was huge! Hope you’re well! xx
Are you sure there’s not been a duck impostor hanging about and laying a ‘cuckoo’ egg on those adorable fairies of yours??
Hehehe…now there’s a thought. This one was actually a double yolker – our very first! :)
Fat Fairies? What a fabulous name. Laying eggs that size, they must be very contented hens indeed – or at least one of them is!
Choc, I wonder if it’s contented or greedy – I think one of the girls just managed to get a bigger share of the protein recently! :)
I do like brown hens. Funny how every now and then one of them lays a whopper – I wonder if she’ll take a day or two to recover. How many eggs will that count as when you make a cake I wonder.
I often go by weight – 50g unshelled egg = I large egg in a recipe. Works ok given the wide range of egg sizes we get! :)
Ha, ha! Love that giant egg! :) Your fat fairies look like a happy lot!
Laila, I’d like to think they are. They certainly seem very content!
Wow that is a big egg!! Enjoy all the goodies you can make with such fresh eggs.
It goes in waves – we bake madly when we have eggs, then ease off when the girls get older and lay less. :)
Ha ha, love it. We’re getting 3 a day and I’m giving them away. Madness I know. I need to bake bake bake! I love our dears, they’re party of the family.
Fran, we’re giving lots away too. It’s hard to keep up! :)
Such a lovely thing to call them – fat fairies! They’re very lovely, don’t you love their fluffy bums and the funny, energetic chicken-scratch dance they do. One of our chooks has laid an eye-waterer too – I did worry that it might do some damage, but they all seem to be ok.
Jan, this batch seem to have particularly fluffy drawers! They’re seriously cute!
All those leftover goodies for 4-5 eggs a day and a giant size bonus looks like a great deal to me :)
Yes, I think it’s a more than fair trade! :)
Beautiful shots. Gorgeous girls. Huge egg!
It was an enormous double yolker! :)
I love the coloration on these ladies & wish that I could walk outside when I needed a fresh egg but man oh man!!! That is one major egg – it looks like it could make omelet all on its own. Are you sure a goose didn’t sneak into the pen?