Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Finally...

I have 2 Lavender Araucana chickens! They're the ones that lay the blue/green eggs. Last year I got some fertile eggs and hatched them but every single one turned out to be a boy. That's where King Bertie came from. I've been on the lookout for some, but they seem to be a bit tricky to find. Finally, I found some on Trademe. The advert said Whangarei, but in actual fact they were right down at the Brynderwyns. Which will mean nothing to most of you that read this, but suffice to say it's a round trip of 5 hours - if you include lunch, chicken pickup and a quick pit-stop at Spotlight for a fabric treat! Thankfully Lloyd is a lovely husband who totally gets my chicken addiction and offered to drive. It's a gorgeous day anyway, so it wasn't really much of a hardship. It also meant we could stop off in Waipu, one of my favourite wee villages and have lunch at the brill wee cafe there.

I picked up my new girls, from a lovely couple, and they're now happily chowing down on some treats in their new house. (That'll be the chickens, not the lovely couple, chowing down.)
I'll keep them there for a few days so my lot can get used to having them around and then let them out, hopefully this will mean there's  not too much fighting.

This is what they look like, but I hasten to add, this is not one of mine, it's a stock photo. Mine are looking a little worse for wear - they're moulting a bit and are also a touch on the muddy side!
The Araucana originated in Chile, so we've named ours Consuela and Conchita. ( how totally original - not!!)  It'll be a while till I get some blue eggs, but hopefully they'll finish their moult soon and lay some nice eggs!

6 comments:

  1. Lucky you! I lost my lavender girl and her fella recently when Mr Fox visited again. I'm really not having a good run of it at the moment so think I will leave off restocking for awhile. Enjoy them, they run really fast!

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  2. We were just talking about different coloured eggs this morning, and if we get some more chicks to raise next Spring, might try to get some of these!

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  3. Lovely looking chicken, cool colour! You may already know this,(you probably do!) but the lady who sold us our chickens advised us to introduce new chickens to the flock at night time (as dark as poss) and this reduces the likelihood of fighting. It worked for us when we introduced shavers to our silkies...no fighting at all!

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  4. thank you Loulou, that's what I do as well :) Alison, I didn't know you'd lost more chickens to mr fox. What a bugger. :(
    Dixiebelle, I hope you find it easier than I did to find them!

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  5. All the best for your chicks. I am sure they will love their new place. I know the Brynderwyns well, lived in Wellsford and worked at Whangarei hospital. And I love Waipu, too. Never made it to the Pizza barn though, people say it is brilliant!

    Cheers

    Peter

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  6. How wonderful--I've heard some good things about these birds and I can imagine it'll be quite nice to have the colored eggs! :) One of our ladies is in a broodie stage--but hopefully she'll be coming back to normal soon....

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Laura x