Happy Christmas 2022

What a surprise, "French the Foodie" is the first hen to greet Lydia

when she opens the back door on Christmas morning.

Coco looks funny in the background bending down

with her beak open. Bianco and Speckles watch nearby.

The hens gather for Christmas morning with Lydia.

Bianco the bantam white leghorn looks tiny in the background

compared to full sized white leghorn Lexi. Speckles stuffs

her face with laying pallets from the bowl. Speckles is the 'top hen'

and she gets to eat first being 'the boss' of the flock.

The flock of 5 on Christmas morning.

Coco approaches the bowl of laying pallets.

Lettuce was also on the menu as per normal.

Merry Christmas from 'the girls'.

Paint Your Pet Buffy Workshop

Lydia attended her fourth "Paint Your Pet" workshop on 28/11/2022.

This time, Buffy was chosen for a portrait painting

(Buffy died suddenly 05/10/2021).

Lydia did some pre-class homework and drew Buffy's

outline on canvas using the grid method of drawing.

A nice light blue sky colour was chosen for the background of the artwork.

Buffy's body colour is beginning to fill in.

More shading is added using acrylic paints.

Buffy seemed to 'come alive' once her eyes were painted.

The finished pet portrait against the gridded photo.

An artist's paint palette.

Bianco Turns 3

Bantam white leghorn hen Bianco turns 3 years old this month.

Speckles ('the boss') stands behind Bianco.

You can see Lexi's white tail sticking up in the background.

Bianco was going to be a 'show bird' before COVID hit.

She is a very noisy little hen.

Bianco is a timid hen and characteristically gets scared easily and runs away.

She runs like the roadrunner!

Bianco loves food. Here she is with a bowl of laying pallets on a sunny morning.

Bianco eats small pieces of lettuce. She's on the bottom

of the pecking order and often eats after the other hens.

Broody Coco

Coco went broody at the start of spring.

Here she sits all fluffed up on top of the coop nesting box.

Look at Coco's fluffed up fan tail!

Broody Coco stands on top of the Taj Mahal coop.

Bowed down and broody.

Little Miss Coco with attitude.

Coco slides down the coop roof.

Coco stands underneath the locked Taj Mahal coop.

Coco walks up the ramp wanting to access the nesting boxes.

Coop closed!

Clever Coco pecks on the closed coop door.

'Let me in! Let me in!' I can hear her say.

Lydia finally gives in and opens the coop door so Coco can sit on a nest.

On The Mat Again

 

Frenchy and Speckles stand on the door mat whilst Lexi looks on.

The girls hang out at the front door.

Lexi looks the other way whilst Frenchy and Speckles chill out on the mat.

Speckles makes herself comfortable and sits down.

On The Mat

How many hens can you fit on a door mat? 3!

Speckles preens her breast whilst standing on a door mat with Frenchy and Lexi.

Coco watches on.

Lexi and Frenchy stand side-by-side.

The hens like to take shelter on the door mat on rainy days.

Hens Hanging Out

Speckles and Lexi look at the camera whilst Frenchy pecks the ground.

(Left to right): Lexi, Frenchy and Speckles.

Check out the size difference between the two white leghorn hens eating

grass on the fenceline! Lexi is about 3-4 times bigger than Bianco!

Coco (left), Bianco (centre) and Frenchy (right) hang out. 

Tails up! Look at those fluffy butts!

A rare photo of Bianco and Lexi side-by-side.

The 5 hens hang out in the middle of the day under one of their favourite bushes.

All the hens are laying except Lexi. Frenchy laid the large dark brown

spotted egg at the top of the photo and Speckles laid the matt light brown

egg on the left. The white egg on the bottom left is Bianco's and the

very light green egg was produced by Coco.

Feed My Face

The 5 hens hang out their blue water bowl. Coco (the light grey hen)

is about to eat some pallets out of a round brown bowl.

Lexi and Frenchy feed their face on pallets

whilst little white Bianco and Coco watch.

Frenchy loves food and her nickname is 'French the Foodie'!

Frenchy takes a short break.

Half sisters Frenchy and Speckles feed their face.

Speckles eats solo on a wet, rainy day.

Speckles takes a short break.

Bianco walks up to a cauliflower stalk (vegetable food scraps).

Lexi is in the background.

Bianco loves munching on large vegetable food scraps.

Bianco eats the core of the cauliflower first.