Speckles and Frenchy Turn 1

Happy New Year!

 Speckles and Frenchy both turned one year old in early January.

They've been our pets for 6 months now (after Nestle died).

Chickadee (rear of photo, near the dirt bath under the drain pipe)

is 4 years old and is 'the boss' hen.

The hens do a lot of preening in the morning.

Speckles preens her wing whilst Frenchy stares at the camera.

Chickadee (left), Speckles (centre) and Frenchy (right) 

sit together in their favourite corner.

Merry Christmas 2018

Chickadee stands tall on Christmas morning.

This is Speckles and Frenchy’s first

Christmas as 11 month old pullet half-sisters.

Frenchy sits under the shade of a leafy tree to

beat the hot summer weather on Christmas day.

Chickadee spends another Christmas broody.

Frenchy stands and preens whilst

Speckles and Chickadee sit and rest.

Speckles looks cute leaning to one side very relaxed.

Merry Christmas from 'the girls'!

Summer Time Christmas

The weather is warming up in Australia as summer is here.

Frenchy walks across the ground creeper vine.

Speckles likes to play in the greenery too.

Frenchy takes a big bite of watermelon whilst Speckles waits for her turn to eat.

The girls like to eat nice, juicy watermelon.

Chickadee pants on a hot summer's day.

There's lots of fresh water for her to drink.

Chickadee has gone broody again.

Oh no! We'll have a broody hen for Christmas!

Chickadee has been locked out of her nesting box in the

coop whilst she's broody. She sits in the dirt instead.

BFC = Broody Fluffy Chickadee!

This is about the 13th time Chickadee has gone

broody in her four year life span so far.

Hanging Out

Left to right: Frenchy, Chickadee and Speckles sit together.

Frenchy's sits with her tail up high.

The girls relax and hang out.

Speckles and Frenchy hear a noise and look around.

 Chickadee looks enormous sitting on the porch

whilst the other 2 little hens sit in the garden.

Speckles and Frenchy hang out and relax.

Speckles

 Speckles 'mug shot'!

We love her cute fluffy face!

 Speckles is a cross between a French Wheaten Maran and Pekin hen.

Frenchy is her half-sister.

Lydia loves this photo of Speckles with a piece of dried leaf stuck on her beak.

You can see dark brown Chickadee with her red comb

sitting under the bush in the background (right hand side).

Speckles perches on a low lying tree branch.

Chickadee Turns 4

Chickadee turns 4 years old on 13th October 2018.

She's been our pet since she was 7 weeks old.

Chickadee weighs over 3 kilograms and is classified as a

'heavy' chicken breed being a pure Rhode Island Red hen.

We didn't know that Chickadee would grow this big!

Her nickname is 'BFC'= Big Fat Chickadee.

We hope that Chickadee's frequent 'broody phase' has

passed as she was often broody in her first 3 years of life!

Chickadee loves eating grass, lettuce, fresh tomato,

sunflower seeds, moths, bugs and live meal worms.

Laying pallets and shell grit are an essential part of her diet.

Even though she's 4 years old, Chickadee still lays about 5 eggs a week.

Chickadee eats grass next to second in charge (2IC) Speckles 

with Frenchy in the background. Bossy Chickadee

tolerates little Frenchy but they are not best friends.

3 Happy Hens

Chickadee on the left looks huge compared to little Speckles (centre)

and Frenchy (on the right)! Yes Chickadee really is that big!

 Lydia finds it difficult to take photos of the 3 hens together.

Quite often, Chickadee is so big that she doesn't fit in the photo frame!

Or the girls are spaced too far apart to fit in a close up photo. 

Speckles has a habit of preening during photo shoots!

Speckles, Frenchy and Chickadee come to see

if Lydia has brought food on a sunny day.