picnic

Lots of photos, not many words today...
I finished the picnic rug that I started um, forever ago. It's quite wonk-a-riffic and my machine quilting is terrible but better finished than not! Just in time for autumn which is, to be honest, one of the more picnic-friendly seasons hereabouts. Besides, we now have LAWN! We always thought we were crap lawn gardeners but it turns out that since the neighbours had their two massive scary overhanging eucalypts removed, things actually grow. And look green. With not a lot of effort. So we have been picnicking on the picnic rug on the lawn in front of the chickens under the blue sky and it has been rather nice.
Which makes it sound like the pace is all relaxed around here which indeed it never is. Need more hours in every day. (Or maybe every night.) But we're working, working, working towards a 3-week holiday soon which is quite exciting.
And here's what our single baby chick looks like at 2 weeks old. It has quite a strong sense of self-importance as an only child of two extremely attentive mothers!

- Jane x

bonus chick

Okay so this is slightly odd, but really quite natural... bear with me!

There is a rooster in our freezer right now who has just become a father.

The hatchers: our usual broody pair.
Here's wee little Bonus Chick, fresh out of the egg.

And here he/she is the next day, all fluffed up.

The father: a handsome Light Sussex that we hatched last October. Neatly packaged in our freezer since about a month ago.

From our October hatch we ended up with four roosters, which we had, ah, processed, for consumption. Which of course we must be prepared to do if we want to hatch eggs. This particular boy matured remarkably quickly and was seen doing the 'cock-a-doodle-do' with one or two of the ladies of our flock by about three months old.

A few days after the roosters departed, our super-broody Wyandotte took to the nest again. After a few days of this I decided to throw a few of our own collected eggs under her and see what happened. As I suspected her usual partner-in-broodiness joined in soon after. And three weeks after that, we had a chick! Just the one. But any is a bonus.

So who was the mother? It could have been any of our three Wyandottes or our Wyandotte/Australorp cross. (The two girls from our October hatch are still a way off laying so there was no chance of in-breeding.) It will be interesting to see how this little baby's colouring develops. I only hope with all fingers and toes crossed that it is a girl.

- Jane x