A special friend said she’d like to meet my
chooks.
So on a fine sping day I took my camera out into the garden to see who I could find.
Here’s a few chickens.
Let’s see who is here.
This is Shirley.
She’s a hyline.
Hylines are one of the two varieties of commercial layers available in New Zealand.
And here is Goodness.
She is Shirley’s sister, and also a hyline.
They lay lots of big brown eggs.
Shirley and Goodness are two years old.
I did have a third one of the sisters, called Mercy.
They were a bit of a play on the words in the Psalm, surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life.
But now, since Mercy died, I guess I’m merciless.
You can see that this hen has much richer dark colour, almost mahogany.
She’s a Rhode Island Red and her name is Rowanna.
Rowanna is one year old, and she also lays lots of big brown eggs.
Rowanna is featured at the beginning and end of my video called Learn to Love Chicken Poo.
And who’s this standing in the shade by my feet?
You can tell by her comb she’s a leghorn.But her colouring is an unusual black and white,
a bit like a plymouth rock but smudgier.
Opal and my rooster Cambridge are actually a colour called cuckoo.
I really like the cuckoo leghorns and I’ve just hatched 11 of them.
Opal and Cambridge are both one year old, and Opal lays big eggs that are almost white,
just slightly pearly.
Whoops, here’s Opal’s sister, Isabella.
She’s also a leghorn of course but she didn’t get the cuckoo colour.
However I really like her colour too – it’s an amazing subtle pattern, a bit like a pale
version of a silver duckwing.
Isn’t she pretty?
And she lays lots of big, pure white eggs.
Ah, here comes Lighsa.
Lighsa is a breed called Light Sussex but she’s not a light chook – she’s hefty!
Lighsa is just over a year old and she lays medium-sized creamy coloured eggs.
With that black necklace and tail she’s a stunning looking lady.
Now over here in this little group is my oldest chook.
Her name is Gonzo and she’s just coming up to seven years old!
She got that name because she looks a bit funny with her huge topknot.
Gonzo is an Araucana and when she lays eggs they are small and they have blue shells!
But she’s so old now she hardly lays any eggs at all.
I have another Araucana called Arya.
She’s just under a year old.
I hatched her hoping I might get another one like Gonzo but Arya doesn’t have such a
big topknot.
However she also lays small blue eggs.
It’s rather fun to have blue eggs.
You might have noticed that some of the varieties of chickens look a little different from the
way they look overseas.
That’s because we don’t have many varieties of chickens in New Zealand and we’re not
allowed to import any more so we have to work with what we’ve got.
Just behind Arya is one of my white shavers.
It’s odd to see just one, I have two of them and they usually go around together like
twins.
Are here is the other one.
I call them Gillette and Remington, or Remy for short.
They even like to pose together like twins – come on eyes front, and now face left.
That’s do – what a couple of posers!
They are just 8 months old but already laying well – they lay white eggs.
Now this is one of my favourite breeds, a Wyandotte.
Lots of Wyandottes have a lacy pattern to their feathers with each feather outlined
in a different colour, usually in black.
But Margy is a colour called buff laced, or more accurately white laced buff - that means
that each feather is outlined in white.
I’ve bred quite a few buff laced Wyandottes because I think they’re so pretty.
Ah, and this funny looking thing is called Fling.
And yes she is called Fling because she’s a funny looking thing.
She’s a breed called Houdan, and they all have this big topknot that covers up most
of their face, and lots of them are this black and white colour.
She’s nearly a year old and her eggs are quite small, but she’s lays most days.
I like her small eggs for my breakfast.
Well, it’s nearly the end of the day and it looks like everyone is heading back to
the hen house for the night.
And so that’s some of the chickens in my garden at the moment.
I hope you enjoyed meeting them.
Look out for more videos on my channel “Chickens in my garden”.
Thanks for watching.