Female and male
I've fallen terribly behind (again), and hope to catch up over the next few weeks.
Female
I keep chickens (or chooks, as we call them here in Australia). Here is a pic of three of my girls, one laying pullet and two just approaching lay (our older hen is moulting, so she's off sitting in the sun and feeling sorry for herself)...
And the yummy little treat (only the one on the left is real, the other is a ceramic egg) the black chook gives us each day...
Male
Apparently chickens are much happier with a rooster around to protect them, find them yummy things to eat, and generally make them feel safer. However, they also love to crow (all night long!), make the hens more likely to go broody and encourage them to hide their eggs, so meet Tinny, our very well behaved and very quiet rooster...
And here he stands guard over his girls from his spot in the herb garden...
Female
I keep chickens (or chooks, as we call them here in Australia). Here is a pic of three of my girls, one laying pullet and two just approaching lay (our older hen is moulting, so she's off sitting in the sun and feeling sorry for herself)...
And the yummy little treat (only the one on the left is real, the other is a ceramic egg) the black chook gives us each day...
Male
Apparently chickens are much happier with a rooster around to protect them, find them yummy things to eat, and generally make them feel safer. However, they also love to crow (all night long!), make the hens more likely to go broody and encourage them to hide their eggs, so meet Tinny, our very well behaved and very quiet rooster...
And here he stands guard over his girls from his spot in the herb garden...
We've had our older girl (an ISA Brown that my son hand raised as a school assignment) for a few years, and the Australorp (black) for a few months, the other two pictured here (a blue and red laced Wyandotte, and a Wellsummer) we only just bought on the weekend... I'm totally in love with chickens, and as I have 10 acres and have plenty of room for them to roam around, I plan on getting some more (chicks and ducklings to hand raise) in spring...I want to have a lovely little mixed flock of many different breeds.
I foresee much baking in my future! lol
I do like the look of contented chickens scratching about.
I only have four at the moment as I only have a very small chook house, but by spring hubby should have finished the much bigger house for them to go away safe from foxes at night, and we will be getting several more chicks to hand raise, as well as some ducklings (I LOVE duck eggs).