Chookies!

After years of simply not getting around to it, we have finally got around to getting us some chookies! We picked these four girls up from a local poultry farm on Saturday morning and they have dominated our thinking ever since.

The farmer told us that they are a Rhode Island Red-New Hampshire cross breed and they have come to us right as they are coming of the age to start laying.

We spent a lot of Saturday out, but still had enough time to watch the girls and begin to understand their different appearances (the farmer tried to give us four different looking ones) and personalities.

When we first brought them home we put them into the run, but they quickly found their way into the coop and haven't come out since. But we are patient as we know the girls will need days, maybe a couple of weeks, to get used to their new surrounds. Particularly with a little Jack Russell bouncing around their run at random times of the day.

I woke up before dawn on Sunday morning, wondering if they had made it through the night. And then  as soon as Miss Eight was awake we went out to check before even realising how little we were wearing. All four girls were absolutely fine, with one even finding her way to the top of three roosts that we had put in there for them. And as of this morning we have spied them investigating the nesting box too - both going into it and pulling the hay out of it.

So they are happy. Still getting used to us and their new digs, but happy.

And names?

The chicken we found on the roost (in the middle of the photo looking to the right) has been named Lucy by Miss Four. It's quite an appropriate name as Lucy does appear to be a bit of an adventurer - just like the character of the same name from the Narnia series (that Miss Four is not yet familiar with).

We have a lighter coloured girl (on the left of the photo with her big white tail sticking up) with a lot of white through her plumage - she's Ginger, named by Miss Eight after Ginger in Chicken Run. She does appear to be quite bossy so I guess she could be considered to be "organised".

I named the darkest one (the one at the very front of the photo - her colour difference doesn't show up well in the photo) Cocoa as she is the lovely rich Rhode Island reddish-brown colour of Dutch Cocoa.

And number four is yet to be named. We thought that Gadgetman would be naming her, but his suggestions thus far of "Cluck", "Bock", "Baaaarck", "Bock-ock" and other names inspired by bad Dad Jokes are not quite working for us. Current options could include Pippa, Gidget, Edna and Mrs Collywobbles.