red hens | The Lattimore Acre

The weekend saw our family grow by two more chickens. We finally found some Silky hens. Ben named them Buzz (white like Buzz Light Year) and Woofy (brown like our dog Bonnie). I was a little nervous introducing Silky hens and Red hens because Red hens can be aggressive. And yes there was some aggression. I was just horrified at the whole pecking order process. I couldn’t cope with it so we removed the Silky hens and returned them at night – popping them gently on the roost. I had the worst night sleep…. I was so worried about them. I got up at sunrise to let the chickens out so they didn’t attack each other again in the morning. It is now two days later and there is definitely a pecking order but they seem to have worked it out. Honda is definitely the boss even pecking at Bonnie through the fence today…. hilarious! Buzz and Woofy are only sixteen weeks old, just babies. They don’t even have there fluffy feet yet. We are looking forward to sharing lots of cuddles with our new fluffy hens.

Since we live on a “property” now, we thought that we ought to put on some “stock”. We now have two chickens named Honda and Penny Penny.

First we had to assemble the chook pen. All hands on deck – thanks to Grandad George and Nanny. We also purchased our feed and water containers.

Second job was site preparation. We fenced off a corner about 20m x 10m. Thanks to Grandad and Gamma for lending a hand.

Then, we just added chickens. Buying chickens is apparently like buying eggs, prepackaged in a convenience box. We got our red hens from Stocks Produce, just around the corner from our place and the chook pen from Risson Produce in Ipswich. We are also going to add four Silkies when we can find some.