Chickens

Before we could get chickens, we had to build them a chicken coop. It didn't really take long, and it's quite a decent sized place.

Our first 4 chickens (3 of them are in the photo above) came from a place in Taupo that sells eggs as free range. The ones we got were apparently getting old and were being replaced, so they were cheap! 1 of them was fairly sick for quite a while, and unfortunately Dave found her dead this morning.

These chickens, along with 2 others we got from the people with the Dorpers, are very friendly! They will sit down for us when we go into the coop and put their wings out waiting for a pat. One of them appears to be the boss, and we call her Bishop Tamaki (it was better than barebum, as she was missing feathers when she arrived).


Apart from our normal chickens, we also got some chickens that were interesting breeds. Dave really wanted some Araucana chickens as he's had them before and they lay eggs with green shells. We got 4 Araucana's, 2 lavender (they are the light grey looking ones), 1 blue and 1 black. While we were there, we also got 2 Orpingtons... they are supposed to be very friendly, but they aren't!

As far as eggs go, none of the Araucana's have laid any yet! The Orpington's certainly aren't regular... but our first old hens keep us going!

We will end up getting more eventually, and would like to end up with free range chickens in the end.

The last photo I will post is the size range of eggs we get... starting with the eggs from the little chickens that have just started laying, normal egg, then giant egg! (ouch..)



Tomorrow... the dogs :)