jmgoyder

wings and things

Has anyone seen my eggs?

Most people who keep backyard chickens do so in order to provide themselves with a supply of eggs. But when we first acquired a few chooks, I was so enamoured with their personalities and fascinated by the fact that they were so tameable, that I forgot about the egg thing.

Yes, I had set up nesting boxes and bought a little chookhouse but I was so fond of picking the chickens up and giving them hugs that I didn’t care if they laid eggs or not. Occasionally, out of curiosity, I would look inside the nesting boxes but there were never any eggs anyway.

Then, one day I found a dozen eggs inside an old crate at the back of our garage. They were huge and I knew they must have come from our one and only Isa Brown hen. I was thrilled and we ate them over the next few days – delicious!

But she never laid any eggs there again. In fact I have no idea where she lays her eggs and I can’t follow her around 24/7 can I. Now, since chickens average an egg per day, this means that, having had Isa for around six months now, there must be a couple of hundred eggs … somewhere!

But where? Even she can’t find them!

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Lost and found!

When I went out this morning to feed the chooks I found Sussex (minus her chicks) happily frolicking with the other chooks, which surprised me. Neverthless I was happy that she had recovered from her grief so quickly. I was sitting in my usual place on a log, feeding out the scraps when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Malay (another chook named after her breed) and – shock of shocks – all three chicks were with her! I knew that both Sussex and Malay had been sitting on eggs under an old shed for weeks but since I only ever saw the chicks with Sussex, I assumed Malay was having the chook equivalent of a phantom pregnancy.

On closer inspection I noticed that two of the chicks looked a lot like Malay, pictured below – sort of ugly handsome. Maybe yesterday was the day she decided to take them back from Sussex. Malay has always been rather elusive so I didn’t think anything of it when I didn’t see her yesterday. She must have been hiding with the chicks somewhere, perhaps smirking when she heard Sussex’s squawks of grief.

If I were Sussex I would leave well enough alone because, as you can see, Malay is rather formidable!

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A mother chook’s grief

Many people think that chickens are stupid, only good for egg production or meat, and devoid of emotional intelligence. Not so. Early this morning I heard a terrible squawking from the back yard and, when I went to investigate, there was Sussex looking for her babies. The above picture was taken a couple of weeks ago when she thought she’d lost her third chick, a Thumbelina-sized ball of cotton wool, but luckily it turned up later in the day. A similar, happier picture featured in my last post.

It doesn’t look so hopeful today as, hours later, I can still hear Sussex calling them and her squawk is desperate and grief-stricken. Son, Husband and I have looked everywhere, but we can’t find them either, so we are all upset because this is the first time one of our chooks has produced chicks and Sussex has been such an incredible mother.

I am full of hope and dread.

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“Those thieving birds”

Silverchair’s song, “Those thieving birds” is one of my favourites and I was tempted to call this blog “Thieving birds” but I thought that might be just as obscure as the weird metaphors in this beautiful song (check it out …. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQ-TWipBhc )

For me, the idea of thieving birds, despite its darker implications, means this: These birds have stolen tidbits of my heart then returned them to me like nuggets of gold. Yeah, I know that sounds a bit cliched and twee but hopefully the pictures will do the talking here.

Top left: Pearl, our first Sebastopol gosling

Top right: Tina Turner, the rooster I thought was a hen

Left: King peacock competing with white peacock

Right: Emery, the emu chick at two months of age!

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