The story of "Blah"

We thought you might like to hear the story of Blah. Our beautiful Mama hen.

Here is Matt with her.

This photo was taken in October 2008.

We got Blah from a farm in Te Puke. We drove all the way down, through Mt Maunganui, stopping for lunch, then out to Te Puke and back home again. The lady was lovely and told us Blah was 'show' quality. We just hoped for some gorgeous little eggs and a friendly chook.

She wanted to give us more hens, she had been breeding, but was getting older and was trying to ensure they all went to good homes. But we took only 3. Blah, Pinochio and Goldilocks.
Matt, Sarah and Dan chose one each and named them. Dan was young and couldn't speak. The only word he could say was 'Blah' and thus 'Blah' was named.

She is a beautiful hen. Standing up to the big 'brown shavers' we also have. Definitely not the bottom of the pecking order.

She has always had a tendency to be broody. She would lay for about a week, then stop and just sit in the hen house. She would get all clucky when we moved her to collect 'her' eggs, and often would try to peck us. We have since heard this is a good sign for a mama hen.

A few weeks ago we decided that as she wasn't pulling her weight in giving us eggs, it was time to see if she could do it in another way. I loved the idea of having baby chickens and wondered if it would be possible?

After doing some research Matt, Sarah, Dan and I decided we would give it a go. Andy wasn't as keen as the we were, but we managed to buy a second hand coop off trade me ($30!!!) and we put her in it with some golf balls. She took to them like they were real eggs.

She sat on those eggs for a few weeks. Finally after a conversation with you guys (Vicky) we decided that we would go ahead. We found the eggs we thought we'd like, we found the farm and we ordered them.

The start of the next part of Blah's story began.