Pet of the Year Competition

The local newspaper is holding it annual 'Pet of the Year' competition.

As always, Lydia and Gerard entered photos of their pet hens just for fun!

Chickadee, Speckles and Frenchy were the only 3 birds entered in the competition.

Chickadee and Speckles were published on the first

page of the double spread in the newspaper.

Frenchy's pet competition entry was published

on page 2 in the bottom right hand corner.

This is the competition photo of five year old Chickadee

(aka "Boof Chook").

 

This photo of Speckles with her cute fluffy face was submitted to the newspaper.

"I am Inspector Speckles".

This is the photo of Frenchy "The Diva" that was entered in the

'Pet of the Year' competition.

The public has to buy the newspaper and collect competition

entry form coupons to vote for their favourite pet.

Voting closes on 19th December 2019.

Who would you vote for?

Locked Out Of The Coop

Five year old Chickadee has gone broody again for the 14th time!

A recent 5 day heatwave has taken its toll on the Rhode 

Island Red hen who's overheated and gone broody!

Chickadee (left) was cranky this morning that Lydia removed

her from sitting in the nesting box in the coop.

Chickadee likes to go broody around the time

when the local 'pet of the year' competition is on!

Speckles (right) pecks the ground and stays close to Chickadee.

Broody Chickadee decides to sit in the dirt in front

of the hens' "Dine-a-Chook" feeding station.

Chickadee stands up and gets ready to make a move.

Chickadee walks into the ground floor of the Taj Mahal coop.

Chickadee is not impressed that the entry to the nesting boxes is closed!

Chickadee looks at the closed door at the top of the ramp.

The broody hen walks up the ramp.

Let me in! Let me in! Open the door!

I want to sit in my nesting box!

Chickadee is not impressed that she's been locked out of the coop.

Chickadee gives up and turns around to walk down the ramp.

Crazy Chicken Lady

'The girls' are waiting for their morning feed.

Big Chickadee (right) looks like she's in a hurry

for breakfast after waking up at the crack of dawn.

Lydia received a custom-made storage container as a birthday gift

from her friend Stephanie. Lydia thinks the wonderful gift is very

thoughtful and useful. The container fits perfectly in the fridge to store fresh

food scraps for the hens. Speckles inspects the new box placed on the ground.

Chickadee and Frenchy can be seen approaching from the right

to check out the strange box they have never seen before.

Speckles wants to know what's in the 'Crazy Chicken Lady' box!

Speckles is such a curious little hen.

The opened box reveals lots of fresh lettuce leaves inside.

The girls love lettuce and they eat heaps of it every day.

Frenchy takes the first bite.

Speckles sticks her head in the container to pick out the lettuce leaves.

The girls are happily feeding.

Frenchy and Chickadee have their fluffy butts

facing the camera during the feeding frenzy.

Three 'lettuce monsters'.

Nom, nom, nom.

Stephanie handmade this appropriately themed birthday card for Lydia.

Pretty cool, hey?!

Chickadee Turns 5

Chickadee turned 5 years old on 13th October 2019.

Her nicknames are 'BFC' (Big Fat Chicken)

and 'Boof Chook'.

Chickadee has been our pet hen since she was 7 weeks old.

She is very docile and sooky and loves cuddles.

 Food is one of Chickadee's favourite things.

She's not very good at her job at being boss hen at the top

of the pecking order. Speckles is second in charge (2IC)

and Frenchy is at the bottom of the hen hierarchy.

Chickadee drinks a lot of water, especially in the warmer weather

and when she's laying eggs. Chickadee still lays about 4-5 eggs

per week as a 5 year old Rhode Island Red hen.

Chickadee enjoys having a dirt bath but is hopeless at

shaking her tail so there's always dirt in her tail feathers.

Paving Pitter Patter

Earlier this month, a large area was paved in

the backyard which included a lot of site works.

The hens didn't like the noise and activity outside their pen.

Speckles' feathers camouflages with the paving bricks.

Curious Speckles checks out the paving progress.

Speckles, Chickadee and Frenchy have a look

at the changes and check out what's going on.

Chickadee stands in a pile of fine gravel with her big yellow

feet whilst Speckles and Frenchy peck the ground.

A curved line of chicken footprints!

Three fluffy butts with their tails up!

The girls return to their pen after their paving inspection.

This is one of Lydia's favourite photos.

Speckles looks so cute and little standing behind big Chickadee.

Frenchy (on the left) watches on.

My Second Chicken Painting

On 2nd July 2019, Lydia attended her second painting

class to practice the grid method of portrait painting.

Of course Lydia chose to paint a pet chicken

and she selected this photo of Giblet!

Giblet was one of the first 'Happy Hens' in 2011.

Lydia used a pencil to sketch the outline of Giblet's body

using the grid method to get the proportions right.

The upper background was painted using Jo Sonja's artist matt
acrylic paint in 'Cobalt blue hue'. We call this shade 'Giblet blue'
as the fussy hen would only eat her seed mix out of recycled
ice-cream containers in that colour! Giblet was funny as she
would not eat food out of any container that was not cobalt blue!

The painting progressed, however, Lydia was not happy with Giblet's white fluffy
butt artistic brush strokes on the canvas as she thought it looked like an egg fart!

Lydia took the painting home after the art class and modified it.
She made the fluff disappear! Giblet now has scaly legs.

Lydia and two art students show off their paintings.
The lady on the right painted a photo of her new pet Rottweiler
puppy named Xena. Everyone else in the class painted black and white
human female portraits. All the artworks turned out great,
thanks to our awesome teacher named Em.

Chicken Macadamia

After 20 mm of much-need winter rain, Lydia caught Speckles scratching

in the macadamia tree big pot. The macadamia tree is indigenous to

Australia and produces delicious round nuts (Gerard's favourite!)

The tree was burnt and suffered during the hot summer

temperatures and is beginning to grow again.

Frenchy and Chickadee join in the scratching action on ground level.

Chickadee is the same colour as the soil!

Frenchy and Chickadee move closer to Speckles in the pot.

Speckles takes a short break in the pot.

We're sure that she likes to eat the potting mix?!

BFC = Big Fat Chickadee!

Triple trouble.

Chickadee and Frenchy eat all the soil that Speckles has scratched out of the pot.

Speckles has dirty feet as she prepares to jump out of the macadamia tree pot.

The soil level in the pot is getting low, thanks to naughty Speckles!