One Fine Chook Pen

We have ten chooks (eleven including the neighbour’s white chook which moved in) and their digs are unashamedly fancy and thanks to my husband and son and one creative lockdown project in 2020.

It all started with a plan which I bought from etsy but it was in imperial measurements and so we had to convert and also add a much more Australian corrugated iron roof. Living in the bush it also had to be completely critter proof (snakes, possums, rats) and even has an automatic open/shut door and a feed bin accessed by the girls pressing a bar (very psychological operant conditioning from psych 101 - I knew that would come in handy one day! Unfortunately the local bush turkey who we call Nelson after the bully in The Simpsons has also learned how to press the bar. Inside features framed chicken and rooster photographs for the girls to admire while roosting although my daughter thinks we may need to remove the rooster photos because several of the girls are often clucky - refusing to move from their nests.

The girls all have distinct personalities - we started with the first group we bought, mostly fancy heritage chickens and gave them suitably royal names - Lizzy, Margaret, Eugenie, Kate, Camilla and Diana (but unfortunately Diana passed away and then I felt awful having named her that!). Then we added some silky bantams - Licorice, Caramello and Milky and then an impulse buy of two run of the mill chickens from the produce barn - Beulah and Betty - who turned out to have the most personality of all! Without fail when I am in my studio, Beulah announces her arrival about once every 2 hours, does a tour of the studio and my progress and then goes off to join the rest of the chicken gang.