Endless amount of fun

Cocoa and Fluffy have been getting a lot of attention from James and Sienna these holidays and they have been making little cubby houses for them in the backyard out of cardboard and plastic lids. They are very tolerant and good natured chickens. Here's today's activity of making them a cubby house near where they like to rub themselves in the dirt. After a while the kids went into the chicken coop to pretend they were chickens. All I know it was a good place for them but they made more noise than the real chickens.

Backyard Fun

It was a beautiful sunny day in Brisbane today and Sienna got stuck into watering the garden and playing with the chickens. Here's a few pic's from today.

Chickens

Here's the bag of chicken feed that I had to cart from the car, it weighs a tonne... (well not really). The chickens were very excited when they saw it. It gets emptied into the vermin proof (such an American term I think) container.

Sienna and Fluffy

Yesterday afternoon Sienna wanted to go for a swim even though it was a little bit windy and cold so got into her togs and before the swim she was playing with her chicken Fluffy. I love the way she hitches up the chicken on her hip and looks so comfortable. The chickens are a part of our life and we love them. We definitely still love getting 2 fresh eggs a day as well. I have sent this picture to two friends and they both commented on how grown up she looks.

Coco and Fluffy update

Well our beautiful chickens are going well and we love having them. Fluffy is now laying a egg a day as well so we are getting 2 fresh eggs a day. I can't tell you how cool it is to go outside and collect the eggs and come inside and cook them. The kids are having fun playing with them, talking to them, looking after them and collecting the eggs as well. They are free to roam the yard for hours at a time as long as I get them past my veggie garden first. It's funny because as soon as they are let out they both run a million miles and hour and head to my veggie garden to munch on my lettuce. (not happy Jan!!!) however if we can get them past the veggies they go down the back to scratch around and dig for worms in a garden bed that has no plants so it's great for them. They are down there for hours digging around.

Here's a couple of pictures I took of them the other day underneath the mock orange trees.

Sunday morning breakfast

Fresh eggs for breakfast...there's only one thing to do and that is to get Bill Granger's recipe book out and make scrambled eggs...this recipe uses cream and makes the eggs so light and fluffy.

Coco has just laid her 4th egg and Sienna is patiently waiting for Fluffy to start laying. There's not a lot you can do with 4 eggs over 5 days but once we start getting 2 eggs a day it will be great.

I watched Annabel Langbein's "Free Range Cook" show last night which is on ABC at 6pm and she bought herself a couple of chickens for fresh eggs and also made a meringue dessert which has coconut in it and fresh fruit. Apparently you have to use eggs that are 7 days old so once we get 2 eggs a day I'll save some and try her recipe.

Nesting - they've worked it out

Today Coco (we think) worked out that upstairs in the chicken coop was the best place to lay her egg. The funny thing was the kids let the chickens out before breakfast and Coco kept running past James, onto our pavers and behind the outdoor fridge. James put her on the grass and before he turned around Coco ran back to the same spot. This happened about 5 times and in the end I told James to just put them back in the coop. Coco and fluffy immediately went upstairs and starting scratching around and we looked inside and worked out Coco was the one making all the noise. About 10 mins later James went back and opened the door and he found the egg.

We were just as excited and jumping for joy about our 2nd egg as we were about the first. Just have to wait until Fluffy lays an egg and then we'll have 2 eggs a day. So far James wanted the first egg, Sienna wants the 2nd egg so I'm hopeful I might get to try one of these tomorrow. We are having such fun with the chickens.

Our very first EGG

This afternoon after school the kids and I went to the chicken coop to fix up the drink dispenser that had fallen down and low and behold James found an egg in the bottom of the coop. We were very excited and the kids each had a turn holding it for the photo. I wonder what surprizes there will be tomorrow in the coop. Coco and Fluffy have been allowed to roam around the yard for quite a few hours while I've been at home but the last few days they got into my veggie patch and dug up my need seedlings so they have been confined to the coop until the kids come home from school today. James wants me to boil the egg for an egg sandwich for school tomorrow however I would love to have it on toast for breakfast myself. Maybe I'll give it to him and I can have the next one...oh what a good mother I am...... the sacrifices one makes for your kids!!!! Hopefully there will be plenty more eggs where that one came from.

Baby Carrotts & Aunty Lisa meets fluffy & coco

My sister came over to meet the chickens and had a little hold. The kids were thrilled to bits to show off their new pets to their Aunty Lisa. Also I need to thin out our carrotts as too many were planted and the kids pulled them out and they are starting to look like real carrotts. We are feeding the green leaves to the chickens which they are enjoying.

More chicken pictures

Here's a few pictures of the kids with Coco and Fluffy this morning with their Nanny & Pop who were on their way back to Melbourne today. We had a wonderful time with them staying with us and we will miss them being around.

Meet Coco and Fluffy

We are now the proud owners of 2 chickens called "Coco" and "Fluffy". I've been thinking about this for a few months and decided it would be a good idea for the kids to have a pet and at the same time we can have yummy organic eggs so it's a bit of a win-win situation.

James named his chicken Coco and the band around it's leg is orange and Sienna named her chicken fluffy and it has a pink band around it's leg. We were all pretty excited to get our new pets and show them their new home. Here's a few photos from today.