Nesting

Earlier this month, Chilli did not lay any eggs in her  nesting box

 in the coop for four days. Lydia was suspicious and went looking

 for the secret stash of eggs in the garden, only to find Chilli

caught in the act sitting on a nest in the grass.

Chilli was very comfortable in her nest and had a little sleep.

Nestle comes along and finds Chilli sitting in her grass nest. Busted!

"Hey, what are you doing in there Miss Chilli?"

Chilli looks very happy and proudly shows off

one of the eggs she is sitting on.

Chilli gets ready to lay another egg in the nest.

  Chilli starts pushing....an egg is coming.....

 More pushing, pushing....

Look! There's already 3 eggs in the nest!

Hooray! Chilli lays an egg which is the fourth one in the nest.

You can see the new, fresh egg shiny at the back on the nest.

Chilli's nest eggs.

Four fresh eggs.

Nestle stands tall in the grass, as if on guard duty near Chilli's nest.

Nestle wants to be close to the egg action!

Nestle Nap

 Hello Nestle! 

What are you doing sitting there?

Are you a little bit sleepy?

 Somebody is looking a little bit tired.....

Time for some Nestle naps.

All Things Easter

The Easter egg basket is brightened up and

 decorated with little fluffy yellow chicks. 

Chilli looks at the egg basket... I wonder if Chilli is thinking,

"Gee those eggs have changed colour since I laid them!"

Ben, Kyla and Taine come to visit the 2 Happy Hens
for a fun Easter egg hunt in the garden.

The children show off their colourful boiled eggs decorated with stickers.

Three happy faces with boxes of chocolate Easter eggs. 

Thanks to Claire for the lovely bunch of fresh flowers.

Chilli inspects the flowers.
I wonder if Chilli is thinking,
"Hey, this vase of flowers is taller than me!"
Chilli always has to peck new things at least once.

All things Easter:

a basket of Easter eggs, Easter flowers,

Easter chocolate and a 'real' Easter chicken! 

Thanks for posing in the photo Chilli!

Nestle was unavailable for the Easter photo shoot as

she was busy laying an egg in the coop (true story!)

Easter Preparations

 Here is a collection of 38 eggs from Nestle and Chilli

whilst they were on antibiotics.

Chilli was treated for a mild upper respiratory infection

and the vet prescribed water soluable medicine for a month.

 Nestle couldn't resist drinking from the same

 water source so both hens were medicated.

We were advised not to consume the eggs from the

2 Happy Hens whilst they were taking antiobiotics.

Gerard had the bright idea to keep the eggs and

use them for an Easter Egg hunt in the garden.

Lydia hard boiled the eggs in a big pot a few days before Easter.
The brown eggs are from Chilli and the
lighter coloured cream eggs are from Nestle.

Lydia used food colouring to dye the eggs different colours.

The basket of coloured eggs looks so pretty! 

Cardboard bunny head shapes were mounted on matchsticks

and will also be used for the Easter egg hunt.

We are looking forward to Claire and her three children visiting

 the 2 Happy Hens for an Easter egg hunt on Good Friday.

A Very Wet Day

 An ex-tropical cyclone has brought a rain depression inland to

 Western Australia, causing a very wet start to March 2013.

 Chilli loves getting wet at every opportunity.
Chilli loves water more than Nestle does.

Chilli strikes a pose for the camera. 

 Chilli puffs herself up and is ready to shake off water on her feathers.
Chilli's fat breast is evident in this photo.

 

Time for some preening to dry off.

 Speedy neck preen.

Nestle and Chilli are 2 soggy wet hens!

Nestle's turn to preen.

 Chilli fluffs up her wet tail.

 Preening under shelter of the verandah and trees.

 The garden is soaked with heavy rain.

Nestle takes a sip of water on the ground. 

Grape Temptation

Summer time is grape season in Australia.

The 2 Happy Hens love to shelter under the grape vine 

growing over the trees on very hot summer days.

Chilli scratches in the chaff in front of the grape vine.

Chilli is tempted by a bunch of grapes hanging from the vine.

Hmmm... those grapes look juicy and are within jumping distance.

Nestle makes an appearance but is not as tempted by the grapes as Chilli is.

 Lydia gave Chilli a bunch of grapes to eat.

UFC

UFC

= Unidentified Flying Chicken!

The blob on the left hand side of the photo is Nestle flying!

 

One wing flying action!
It is hard to see Nestle's left wing in this photo.

Nestle flies from the window towards Gerard who is carrying

a blue bag of the chicken's favourite food: grated CHEESE!
Chilli walks behind Gerard and is not far away.
Lydia will have to get some photos for a "Cheesy Chicken" blog post!