chicken stuff · garden stuff

here come the girls!

We now have our Mrs Chickens. 

Chickenhouse1

There's Butterscotch & Toffee the Bovan Goldlines (reddish brown ones) and Chick-Chick who is a Black Star.

Chickens2

They are settling in well and are already such characters. Chick Chick is the noisiest and seems to have declared herself top chook – she was the first to venture out of the house to explore. Butterscotch and Toffee are a little quieter and a little more reticent.

Chickens1

We're all getting to know each other although they're already very friendly. My first task is to train them to climb the ladder – there was much panic and sqwaking at dusk yesterday when they didn't seem to know what to do! Hopefully they'll get the hang of climbing the wooden hill to bedfordshire soon!

52 thoughts on “here come the girls!

  1. Would love to have chickens but not possible so will share yours!! Any knitting getting done or are you still not back in gear?

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  2. I love that little chicken house you built, how clever! And lucky you, no coyotes or other large animals to steal your chickens away. Hoping you enjoy many fresh eggs!

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  3. O MY Gosh….they are so cute!!! It is so fun following along on this adventure with you! We have a little Hen. She showed up on our porch one day “in the CA city” we still have her and she is a cuddle bug. They make very sweet pets….Have fun….Lisa

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  4. I’m so jealous! They are such pretty ladies. I love the way bird feathers make designs, which might be a weird thing, but truly, if you look carefully it’s amazingly interesting and beautiful. Hope they are all cosy in their bedroom tonight. Wish I could have chickens too.

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  5. How precious! They are so eggs-trodinarily beautiful! My sister Laurie has chicken’s and one rooster and they all love to follow my nieces around the yard. One of the chickens is very attached to my oldest niece. She (the chicken) loves to ride in my niece’s baby doll stroller. Can you imagine that? I wouldn’t have believed it except that my sister happened to have her camera out that day.
    Have fun with your feathered friends!
    Cluck,
    Deanna 🙂

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  6. As soon as their little crowns grow bright red you will get the lovliest warm egg. I promise you that first egg will be the best you have ever tasted. I’m so excited for you

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  7. Welcome to chicken world, it’s really entertaining. On the first night here ours went to sleep in the apple tree above their run. I was at a friends and so my husband called me back in a panic thinking I might know how to get hens down. There we were, in the dark, poking them up the bum with broom handles and tons of sqwaking. They worked out the ladder the next night to avoid us.
    Your ladies look lovely.

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  8. The warmest welcome to your ladies! They’are really lovely… I would like so much to have a bigger yard to have some too!
    Hugs
    Gallinavecchia (old hen)
    p.s. please tell them if they would like to go on vacation next summer and visit a florentine hen house they will just be very welcome 😉

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  9. It looks so well ^_^ And aren’t they gorgeous! Oh I envy envy envy… I wish I had a big enough garden. Can’t wait to find out how it progresses 🙂

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  10. Lovely looking girls! I hope you get some eggs from them soon – our girls have just come back into lay after three months of being lazy freeloaders so I’m overwhelmed with eggs!
    I think maybe I should cut back on how many we have. 13 is ridiculous for one family 😉
    Enjoy your girlies!

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  11. Your little girls look so fun! Do you live in a climate that gets snow? If so, how does one take care of chickens in winter? I’d love to know! Thank you!

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  12. I’m so glad that the chicks have finally arrived at your home. I’m guessing Amy and Toby will be having lots of fun with them!? I love their names and Mr Cotton Rabbit is very clever to have built them such a lovely home! As with Else’ comment, I am curious to, to know how you take care of them when your winters are so cold!!? Hope they start giving you lots of yummy eggs!X

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  13. We live in Memphis, TN in midtown (older part of the city) and we recently acquired four Rhode Island Red hens. We love having urban chickens–we built them a nice pen in the back and they have a coop for laying and sleeping. We get beautiful, delicious jumbo brown eggs daily. They’ve fit in nicely with our family (two indoor bunnies, a lovebird and a miniature Dachshund). My daughter stands in the garden digging worms and hand feeds them. Delightful. Enjoy your new girls!!!

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  14. BTW, our girls are named Ginger (after the protagonist in “Chicken Run”), Rhoda, Octavia and Zelda. The last two were discarded names from when my daughter was a newborn. Since we’re all redheads, they suit the hens well!

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  15. Hi Julie!
    I was introduced to the world of blogs last summer and since then have a few favourites that I love and follow regularly. Yours is one of those blogs and I have just realised that your blog was the one that introduced me to some of the others – in particular “Soulmama” and “Jane Brocket”. In fact, your blog was the first blog I found and the one that introduced me to the world of blogs! I can’t remember now how I found your blog, maybe in another 6 months time that will pop into my head, but I do remember that yours led me to some of the others. I found great inspiration through these blogs and in November last year I set up my own blog, an art blog, which covers drawing, knitting and graphics to name but a few categories. I think you would like it.
    If you have time check it out – http://www.littlehillbigsea.typepad.com
    Enjoy your chickens, wouldn’t it be great if they laid knitted eggs!

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  16. We’ve been talking a lot about getting chickens! We get most of our eggs from my friend nearby who raises them. But I’m a bit worried about all the predators we have nearby (if you glance at my blog, I just took pics the other day of 2 very big predators).
    good Luck!!!

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