Chookin’ good: Meet the Aussie women who love keeping chickens as pets
For these women, welcoming chickens into their lives has been the best thing that’s ever happened to them.
Real life: Doctors said i’d never conceive – then I gave birth to a chicken
English chickens are getting tiny little jumpers for winter
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Well, Greg obviously hasn’t bought me jewellery this year, I thought.
“Surprise!” he cried, showing me the chicken coop he’d been building in secret.
Turned out he’d been hiding timber behind the garage and working unnoticed for weeks.
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Soon after, we put an empty cat-carrier into the back of the car and drove to regional Victoria to meet a chicken lady who had some bantams for sale.
Greg and I thought three was a good number to start with, but the lady persuaded us to take four.
“The girls have all been raised together,” she said. “Stevie will be lonely if she’s left behind.”
How could I say no?
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Real life: Doctors said i’d never conceive – then I gave birth to a chicken
English chickens are getting tiny little jumpers for winter
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Sponsored by %%sponsor_name%%
I didn’t expect to love my chooks so much, but Marilyn, Missus, Stevie and Rihanna became more than just pets: they were company and friends.
As the months grew warmer, Greg and I would sit outside drinking cups of tea by their side. We learned that they
went nuts for sweet corn and prawns.
Our cat got along with the girls, too.
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We’d created a fox-proof coop, but the pests could still find a way in. Over time, I lost all my four original girls, but my collection grew to include six more.
We even planned a move to a bigger place with extra room for our chooks.
Then one day, Greg and I had been out when we returned back to the most horrifying sight: all of our girls had been killed by a fox.
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Real life: Doctors said i’d never conceive – then I gave birth to a chicken
English chickens are getting tiny little jumpers for winter
Native ad body.
Sponsored by %%sponsor_name%%
I was distraught because a house doesn’t feel like a home without chickens.
We planned to buy more once we moved and were shocked to learn that, along with toilet paper and pasta, people had stockpiled on poultry, too! We haven’t been able to find any yet, but hope to welcome more into our home soon.
My love of chooks grew to the point I wrote a book, This Chicken Life, with photographer, Ilana Rose, to show the world that chickens are more than just a source of eggs.
The bond they have with people is a legitimate one and they deserve to be treated with respect: they are as smart, affectionate and complicated as any cat or dog and can bring so much joy to our lives.
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Summer Farrelly, 13, Bundaberg, Qld:
Looking around the school playground, I watched groups of girls sitting together laughing and telling stories.
“They’re just like chickens,” I thought.
That might sound like an odd observation, but since getting my first flock of chooks at age nine, I’d noticed these unique birds always gathered in groups where one was the leader, keeping the others in line.
Sadly, the human pecking order didn’t make school life very easy for me.
