Murder by Death

BrokenTune asked me recently when I was going to give some face time to the other three members of our family here at casa de los criaturas locos, and I've finally found some relatively decent pictures of the girls - they are surprisingly hard to photograph.

But without further blithering, here are the chooks:

Meet Eggberta (Eggy), there in the front, and Henrietta (Henri) in the back.  They are Aracauna chickens, noted for the blue coloured shells on their eggs. Of our three, they are the comediennes.  

Eggy should have been named Hendini, because there isn't a coop yet she hasn't escaped from and she finds it hilarious to get us chasing after her, as she goes in every direction except the one we want her to.  She's also the friendliest, always allowing us and visiting kids to reach down and give her a pet.  

Henri is bold and sassy.  She's not quite as friendly in terms of affection, but she's not afraid either.  MT opened the nesting box once when she was in there doing her egg laying and she reached over and pecked him on the forehead as if to say "EXCUSE ME!  PRIVACY PLEASE!".   She's also the skinniest of the three and so, conversely, lays the biggest eggs.

Our third chook is Princess Parmagiana, or Princess Parma, for short.  I DID NOT NAME HER!!!  She is MT's chook, and she's a Golden Barred Wyandotte.  She's a beauty and while she looks fierce and is easily twice the size of Eggy and Henri, she is also the biggest um... chicken.  She is truly afraid of her own shadow; when the other two are running up to see what treats we've brought them, she always hangs back.  MT and I have tried to coax her, but she's an introvert and we respect that.  Last year though, she got a respiratory infection and we had to catch her and feed her with a syringe (warm veggie soup I made with a bit of beef whizzed up into it for protein).  I felt awful every time we had to do it, but to her credit once we caught her she'd sit quietly in my lap and accept the soup willingly.  She bounced back 100% and she's as gorgeous as ever.  She lays medium sized eggs that are so pale brown they look pink.

They are, thank god, the hit of the neighbourhood; they make so much racket sometimes I cringe to think what the neighbours might do (we live in an inner-city suburb of Melbourne) but they all say they love it.  It helps that we share the eggs too, I think.  I'm not an expert on chickens, but I think they're happy; they come running when they hear us and we chat with them while passing out treats (veggies, yogurt; mealworms send them into freakouts of delight).  We've been asked what we'll do when they stop laying eggs - so let me just say; they're part of our crazy family, whether they lay eggs or not.  :)