Poor chooks have been neglected on my blog cause there has been so much other stuff going on, but thought it was time to let you know about their adventures. And boy, have they been having adventures.
While the human side of the family was off to a different country to find out about other cultures so were our chooks. They decided that since we were away they would have a couple of small holidays care of a couple of holes in the fence (they dug under!).
I got talking to our neighbours and it seems our chooks didn't like their little home, but wanted a luxery holiday at the neighbours with a pool and everything!
Seems that they had got out a couple of times and gone to visit, but the most funny was one Sunday morning at 6.30am when the neighbours heard the dog yelping frantically at something. A really funny noise coming from the backyard and their cat going bananas at the window. Yep, our chooks were there and freaking everyone out!
And it turns out our house sitter was a little bit nervous about picking the chooks up. So that made life interesting for her. But she did a great job and chooks were returned to their home.
Luckily those neighbours are very cool and they just had a jolly good laugh about it.
So going back in time, when we got home we immediately went down to see them and all bar one came up to us from outside their area. We had to laugh. We set to fixing the 3 holes we found and they seemed to be fine.
Funnily enough while doing the lawns we moved the kayak and found an egg under it, so obviously they've been laying outside their house.
Then yesterday I found some of the bantams outside again. They seem to come and go as they please now. Flying over the fence. I think its time to clip their wings, or maybe just let them be. They always seem to come home at night time?
Then the other day I noticed we had less eggs. There were only two from the big hens, and only one from the bantams. I thought we just had a bad day. But then the last couple of days there have still only been two from the biggies, and none from the bantams.
I didn't really think about it too much, until today when I was tidying the backyard. I was clearing the path down to the water and mowing the lawns down that way. Right by the bottom the grass was up to my knees! Oh dear! So I thought I'd get a head start before the weekend. Plus its great exercise, right?!
I headed down the back again and noticed two of the bantams were missing. I found Pinochio and put her back. She was around the back. Where Andy had found her a couple of times. Right there by the huge pohutakawa tree.
I went behind it to carry on tidying and noticed a hole in its roots. It kinda looked like a little cave and I thought to myself, that would be such a great place for a chicken to make her nest.
I was kinda joking to myself, but it all started to click into place and I thought I'll just have a quick look around here and see if they've made themselves a new little nest.
Well would you believe they did and I found it!
Looks pretty innocuous right? Like nothing is there. But right behind those leaves is a lovely little nest filled with eggs.
They've obviously been laying there for a few days. There were 11 in total. Wow. So we are now going to be examining two nests to find our eggs. Talk about free range. LOL!
The kids loved it. We all got to carry two or more eggs back to the kitchen and that was just heaven for them. We then tested them to make sure they were still ok (drop them into a glass of water. If they float they're off. If not, they're fine), and then I went for a wander around the neighbourhood giving away eggs. LOL! Felt great.
So our chooks have certainly been up to alot of fun. And thus us too.
Later.