We have chickens!

Yesterday we collected our three Orpington hens. My husband is nearly insane because he's spent the last 2 weeks doing nothing but going to work and building a chicken coop. It's a great one though!

We have no pets so the chooks are to be our pets. We chose (well, I chose) Orpingtons because they are said to have a good nature and can be handled like pets. So far they are not so keen but they will just have to get used to it. They are only about 3 months old. Also I chose them because they are so beautiful! They are not looking overly beautiful yet because they are so young.

Our children, Jack (6) and Anna (3) are very excited. Last night Anna said to them "Now tonight you have to go to sleep in your cage, chickens. You be nice and kind to each other, OK?" They visit them frequently. Probably not as much as I do though!

Already we observe their personalities. The black one is a bit older and by far the most confident. She's the first to explore anything put in the coop. (Although they are not really into eating anything other than their processed mix at this point - that's all they've been used to.) The black one ate a centipede though.

The other two are a bit younger and are blue orpingtons (which really means grey!). The darker one is bossy around food. The smallest and palest grey one gets a bit pushed around but is the only one that lets us pat her.

They are called Cleverclogs (my son's choice), Marian (my PhD supervisor's name - she is an ethologist who works with chickens) and Padme (there are two star wars fans in this house). Padme's the pale one.

I think CC and Marian are vying for top hen. Although generally they all seem to get on well and sit cuddled together frequently, tonight these two were jumping and flying at each other beak first like fighting cocks! It was more of a display than anything, they weren't hurting each other. Interesting though.

It is such fun watching them do all their chicken behaviour. They seemed delighted to find straw on their floor (they lived on plain grass in their old home, where they were bred). Peck, peck, peck. Today they realised that under the grass under the straw was dirt they could scratch at and they were all checking that out enthusiastically.