CHOOKIES

Well our lovely little chookies have been through the ringer!!! last summer we acquired four hens and a chook house from a friend who was moving. Each of the kids claimed one for themselves and promptly named them 'Cloudy', 'KFC', Brick, and 'Sophie'. Matt got to work and made them an enclosure up the back of our yard and they promptly began to supply us with fresh eggs every morning. YUM. The kids would take turns taking out the 'scraps' and collecting the days eggs. FUN.

UNTIL...one day Reuben went out with the scraps only to discover his chook 'Cloudy' with her head stuck between to timber strips on the floor of the 'house'. She had been there for some time (she'd managed to lay two eggs there)and was almost DEAD! her legs were bloody and her kneck was cut from struggling to get free. She was only just hanging on and Reuben was most upset. I told him not to worry too much because chooks are TOUGH but there was a chance she might not make it...Well she made it! phew! A couple of days later she was as good as gold but obviously the stress had been too much and she stopped laying :(

Gradually they all stopped laying (cold weather - I think it's normal for them to stop for a while over winter). Then one morning Matt came in from outside to inform us that we only had one chook left!!!!!!! We figured that someone took them and later we discovered that was, in fact the case. We knew who did it so when I was at work and the culprit came to the counter I simply said "We know you took our chooks, we really miss them so can you put them back please?". A week later they reappeared in their yard!! (minus one...don't ask, don't know, don't wanna know)).

So now we have three chookies. Only problem is they've figured out how to fly over the fence so I have spent 4 hours over 2 days chasing chooks in the neighbours yard - stressing them out (and me). I thought we were doomed to never have fresh eggs again but Isaac, Reuben and I have clipped their wings so now they stay put and on Sunday Morning we got our first egg of the season YAAAAA! And we've had another today. I'm sure the others will follow suit really soon. Is it worth it?????????? definately.

We are going to borrow dad's rooster so that we can have our own little chickies. Can't wait.