A Little Chicken in My Day...

Today was the day.

I dropped the man @ his boat & joined the long queue of cars, trucks, mowers & cement mixers headed inter~island or all the way to the mainland.  It's an hour trip,  bearable if  you have sweeping views of the bay to gaze upon,  stifling if you get wedged between the loos & the bridge, as I was going over.

ODD had agreed to navigate  for me because one of the purchased chickens was to be hers & I get to look after it because, though ODD adores all animals, her lifestyle prohibits owning even a goldfish.

We had several choices of route but as it was peak hour we took the Gateway, then cut across north Brisbane, only slightly less hair~raising than being on my own as ODD talked non~stop, & completely forgot she needed to direct me!  Never~the~less she did indeed get me to our destination.

Now chooks are messy birds & their pens & coops can quickly get on the pongy side but one of the reasons we were travelling all the way out to Mt Samson was because it was highly recommended & Kate, @  Beautiful Chickens, was the only breeder to get back to me & was willing to chat. So worth the effort.  Everything was absolutely spotless & all her birds are in wonderful condition!  I was madly impressed.

We had lots of choices: Sussex,  Rhode Island Reds,  Rocks & Australorps... but in the end I stuck with the Rocks & Aussies.  The Sussex were magnificent birds, large, splendid, stupendous ~ but still growing!!! Actually, so are the Rocks but they won't get that big!

 And all my birds got squashed into just 2 cages despite my having 3 because Kate assured me they would be happier together.  As these aren't small birds I was more than a little dubious but they travelled ok with only the occasional churring from my black girls.  I also got  informed about feed so got a 20 kilo bag while I was @ it.  Why not.  I had the island car to save all that hefting on & off boats.

 The Australorps are gorgeous birds.  Their black is not only glossy but has a wonderful blue/green sheen so they seem to glow.  One of these is ODD's *Nugget*.  The other her choir Mistress wanted named *Namaste*.  These 2 luscious girls are already laying & I suspect *Nugget* will be Top Chook so my chances of eggs shortly is greatly increased.

The Rocks are @ point of lay.  They still have some growing up to do & were reluctant to leave their carrier when we finally arrived home; the Aussies are braver ~ but they all huddled in the western corner  of the coop until the Rocks decided standing in the water dish was the way to go.  So glad I weighted them down but naturally they are now full of mulch & I will need to clean them tomorrow ~ probably several times.

They gobbled down all the food: kitchen scraps; mash & laying pellets but were terribly confused about where to roost for the night.  I had to shove them bodily into the hutch & whether they found the roost or not remains to be seen but they are such calm, happy girls & were chucking away quite mateily  as they surveyed their new home with eager curiosity.

The cats, on the other hand, acted as if I'd brought two~headed grogons home & yowled miserably. *sigh*  This could get interesting.