... on gardenness and chickening.

It was raining like billy-oh in Brisbane on Saturday. Not the best day to be trying to catch chickens and move them and their coop to the new house here, but we managed it! The box of wet grey ladies chatted amiably amongst themselves on my lap for the half-hour journey from my Ma's place to ours.

"Brrrrrr! Brr brr brr brr brr!" (Where do you think we're going?)
"Barrrhhhhh bhhhh bhhh bhhh BHHH!" (I don't know. Does anyone know?)
"BrrrRK!" (You're standing on me!")
"Rarrrrk. Rark. RaaaaaaARK." (Sorry. Not much room in here, you know!)
"Brrrrrr br br br BRK!" (Shh! We've stopped!)


The poor ladies... we had them out of their damp box and into their coop with a fresh dry nestbox and food and water in a jiffy. They took one look at the magpies strolling nonchalantly about the lawn and went into a meltdown.

At one stage all four of them were jammed trembling into the nestbox! At Ma's place we had a particularly vicious magpie who made it his mission to terrorise the chooks. He'd zoom down making his attack call, beak snapping, and woe betide any chicken who found herself in the open. The maggie would even approach anyone hiding behind the feedbins and pull at feathers. He was a really nasty character, so I could understand why the poor ladies were frightened.

However! I'm sure they'll be okay once they realise that their coop is safe. I'm mildly optimistic that maybe the maggies here won't be so intolerant of chickens! This lot of Pekin bantams are recent purchases - and unfortunately they came with a host of parasites to be sorted out. That pale one is anaemic and has a dreadful case of scaly leg mite which I've begun to treat - hopefully she'll come good. They're already taming up quite nicely and their arrival really makes this place feel like home - and the back yard is starting to look like the little urban farmyard we're aiming for!

Speaking of which, the spuds have come up. I was a bit worried that the seed potatoes would have started to rot away with all this rain... nope!

I'm also pleased to report that a choko that I bought at the supermarket has sprouted, so it looks like my dream of having a front fence sprawling with a choko vine might just come true.

And today? Today is 'Operation Herb Garden' day, so that's pretty good, isn't it? I'll report back later!