Those Crazy Chickens! Book One: Monday Chapter 5

Chapter Five~ Summer Job

Protea: (thoughtfully) "Have you two ever thought of getting a job?"

Strelitzia: "No."

Rowena: (scornfully) "A job? Who'd want a job?!"

Strelitzia: "I would, Miss Lazy Ravenclaw!"

Protea: "Well, it's not too hard to get a job around here! Let's think... What would I like to do?"

Strelitzia: "I'm a very good-looking hen... I'd make a good model!"

Protea: "Yes, Strel sweetie, but I'm better looking than you or Ro!"

Strelitzia: "Hey! Our local jewelry shop is looking for models for hire! Shall we apply for the job?"

Protea: "Ooh, yes! Like I said: I'm the prettiest hen in Feather City!"

Rowena: (loud snort) "Oh, alright! How much will we be paid?"

Strelitzia: "Enough."

Protea: (excited squeal) "Come on then!"

Later, they're at the local jewelry store, talking to the assistant....

Jastea the jewelry shop assistant: "So... You ladies would like to apply for the modeling job, am I correct?"

Protea: "Yes. That's right."

Jastea: "Very well. You must come tomorrow, then. Thank you. Here's your note for the jewelry mistress. Next please!"

Strelitzia: (happily) "Oh, lovely! We start tomorrow. Shall we go to the café for supper?"

Rowena: "Yeah, why not!"

The job went really well for them. I won't waste time writing all their girlish conversations. 6 days later, they received printed photographs of themselves modeling the shop's latest jewelry products....

Strelitzia modeling a red bead necklace...
Photo by Helen IV

Protea modelling a colourful summer necklace...
Photo by Helen IV

And Rowena modelling a white woolen
pyjama necklace....
Photo by Helen IV

They were paid enough. Now they could afford loads of luxuries for the coop. A TV... A couch... A mop... Plates.... Talon varnish... Bow-ties... And a Christmas tree. This is NOT good... For me...

End of chapter five.

Those Crazy Chickens! Book One: Monday Chapter 4

Chapter Four~ I Ask Rowena A Question Or Two (or three)

Me: "Rowena, where have you been?"

Rowena: "At Medea's house. Modeling for her clothing company. Duh, where else!?"

Me: "Then where's Strelitzia?"

Rowena: "At the ChickSpar."

Me: "You have a KwikSpar?!"

Rowena: " I said ChickSpar! And, duh! Everyone goes to Spar."

Me: "Last question, Ro! Where's Protea?"

Rowena: "She's at the beauty salon."

Me: "The beauty salon? I didn't know you had a beauty salon!"

Rowena: "You don't know anything, do you?"

Those Crazy Chickens!

Those Crazy Chickens! Book One: Monday Chapter 3

Chapter Three ~National Chickens Start-a- Diary Day!

Rowena: "Hey, girls, I just remembered! It's National Start-a-Diary Day for chickens!!"

Strelitzia: "Oh, cool! I was just getting bored now."

Protea: "But we don't have any books or paper to write on!"

Rowena: "We'll use leaves... Duh! Chickens don't even paper, silly!"

Strelitzia: "Well, how can we get leaves? I can't reach the trees."

Rowena: "Don't be stupid, Strelly! Today the Human Girl will take us to her 'front yard' place. We'll rip of big bits of the March lilly leaves."

Later......

Protea: (grunt) "Got enough leaf for my diary now... How much have you get Strel darling?"

Strelitzia: (strain) "Can't-- get-- this-- last-- bit-- off!"

Rowena: "I'm already putting mine together. I'm binding it with Strap-grass."

Strelitzia: "Ooh, let me see yours!"

Once they've all bound their diaries with strap-grass....... 

Rowena: "There, now we have to write in them. Let's use the paints we stole this weekend. The one from the human's crafts box thingummy."

They take a 3 small pots of paint from a rock-cave in Hideaway Hill. There is blue, black and lime green.

Rowena: "Great!! I'll use the green."

Protea: "I'll use the blue."

Strelitzia: "Okay, let's write. We can use our talons, but we must clean them carefully after, or the humans will be suspicious..."

Rowena settles upstairs in the coop, Protea spreads her diary on the sand downstairs, and Strelitzia puts her things down on the walk-up plank with her back turned on Rowena, Protea can be heard scribbling below her...
Rowena's writing is untidy and hurried:
-----------------------------------------------
Dear Diary,

Look, some people's diaries are sooo boring! Mine is gonna be a lot better than that.

I'll start with a bit about myself. My name is Rowena Ravenclaw. I'm a Red Star hen. (Or at least that's what everyone thinks)
I come from a pet shop (don't know the name of it) and now I live in a human's back yard. My family is two twin sisters (white hens) called Protea and Strelitzia Snow.
Anyway, I used to have a best friend at the pet shop. Her name was Sandra Bigg. We used to have fun together. She tells great stories, although they're not as good as mine.
Here's one of my mildly exiting stories I used to tell Sandra, Elaura and Semi (Elaura and Semi were my other friends)...

The Story of Rowena and Avirana and The Giant Cats Of West Land

Rowena and her cousin Avirana were camping in the wild and dangerous West Land. They had six hens and 6 roosters with them. Lady Avirana and her hunters were hunting for moles and rats to bring back to the chickens of Lady Avirana's little town.
"Hurry, it will be nightfall in no less than 4 hours!" Said Lady Avirana to her hunters. "Set up camp!"
"Yes, my lady!" Cried the hunter-chickens, and they built a massive bonfire and put up their tents, and erected the royal tent for Lady Avirana and Rowena.
Soon the whole camp was asleep. But in the dark night, great cats were hunting their prey. The smell of plump chickens attracted them and 3 great black cats surrounded the encampment.
Rowena saw them first and called to the hunters, "Awake, awake! Stand and fight these foul beasts! We great warrior-birds will not go down without a fight!"
And Avirana awoke and pulling on her emerald-colored wing-armor rushed out and began to tear the face of the largest cat with her golden talons. Rowena and young rooster called Xolos charged forward to help her, and the rest rushed upon the other cats. Xolos was hurt. The cat had taken a great slash at his neck, and he lay wounded at the cats feet. A beautiful warrior hen named Vipê ran to his side and dragged him into the tent. Then Vipê began to help Rowena and Lady Avirana fight the cat. The hunters killed all the cats and in the morning they found 19 moles and 30 large rats. They returned to the village and Rowena was given a medal by Lady Avirana. Xolos and Vipê were given medals too.
The End

So, that's it for today, diary.
Bye, Rowena R.

P.S. none of this is strictly true...
-----------------------------------------------
Strelitzia has lovely, neat round writing:
-----------------------------------------------

My Dear Diary,

I'm Strelitzia Snow. My family is Protea Snow and Rowena Ravenclaw.
My hatchday is March the 11th, and so is Protea's because we are twins.
My favorite colour is pink.
My favorite foods are human spaghetti, coriander and cake.
My favorite name is Delilah. I'd love to be called that!
It's a lovely sunny day today.

Strelitzia
-----------------------------------------------

Protea wrote poetry in fancy, loopy, curly letters:
-----------------------------------------------
Dearest Diary,

I am Protea.

The beautiful Protea,

The loveliest Protea,

The dutiful Protea,

I am Protea,

The clever Protea,

The gentle Protea,

Forever Protea!

Poem title: I am Protea, by Protea Snow

Protea.
-----------------------------------------------
Strelitzia: "I've finished!"

Protea: "So have I."

Rowena: (screech) "Gecko!! Gecko!! After him!!!"

*drops her diary into the nest and runs*

End of chapter.

Those Crazy Chickens! Book One: Monday Chapter 2

'Cherryflutters' And Illuvia Turtledove
It's a quiet hour of the day... When a large female turtledove comes to rest n the telephone wire directly above the Feather City dust-bathing bay. She cocks her head on one side and gazes down at the three hens bathing below her....


Illuvia Turtledove: (in a dreamy mystic cooing voice) "Ohh, hello, dears! I've seen you here very often. I assume you live here? Ohh, by the way, my name's Illuvia. Mrs Illuvia Turtledove. What's yours?"

Protea: (politely) "I'm Miss Protea Snow. This is my twin sister Strelitzia. Pleasure to meet you, Illuvia!"

Illuvia: (turning dark eyes on Rowena) "Whoo is the lovely Cherryflutters?"

Rowena: (spluttering) "What?!?!!!----- Cherryflutters?!!! How-- how dare you, Turtledove---!"

Illuvia: (cooing blissfully) "Ohh, yes I always thought it was a prrretty name. I'm glad you like it, dear! Ahh, it dose suit you! You're such a beautiful cherry rrred..."

Rowena: (outraged) "I-- I'm not cherry red! I'm brownish red, you feathery little---!"

Illuvia: (taking no notice) "No need to tell me your name anymore, dearest. I'll always remember you as 'Dear Cherryflutters'! Hope we meet again... Farewell, my friends!" *flies off cooing dreamily*

Protea and Strelitzia try hard not to laugh... But 'Cherryfluters became Rowena's nickname. That offending title caused Rowena to be very disagreeable for the rest of that day....

Rowena: (still seething) "That-- that annoying little bird is totally off her rocker! She's so... So---!"

Strelitzia: (giggling) "She's so... Charming! Right, Protea? Yeah, we liked her at any rate... Didn't you like her, Cherryflutters?"

End of chapter.

Those Crazy Chickens! Book One: Monday Chapter 1

Typical Monday Morning at Feather City

Strelitzia: "Hey! Hey, you two, wake up!"

Protea: (yawn) "Is it morning already?"

Rowena: "Aaaaaaaarrrrrgggg!!! No! Hide, hide, the Terrible Twins are coming!!"

Strelitzia: "Knock her off the roost, Pro!"

(Thud!)

Rowena: "Help, help!! Wait a moment... Er, hi, Strelitzia..."

Protea: (hopping off the roost) "Why were you yelling your head off, dear?"

Rowena: "Mind your own business, girl!"

Strelitzia: "You were dreaming about your old home. The pet shop. Weren't you, Rowena?"

Rowena: "Don't ask stupid questions!"

Protea: "Come on, let's go out to wait for breakfast."

10 minutes later.......

Protea: "Let's do something before breakfast. I'm bored!"

Strelitzia: "All right. What shall we do then?"

Rowena: "How about a week-
planner?"

Strelitzia: "Oooh! That will be so much fun! Er, wait.... What's a week planner again??"

Rowena: "It's a thing that you plan your week and weekend with... I think."

Protea: "Well, how do we make one then?"

Rowena: "Let's start by thinking what we'd like to do this week!"

Strelitzia: "Okay! I'd like to launch plan W of the Ruin The Human's Garden mission this week."

Protea: "Cool, great plan Strelitzia! I'd like to open a beauty parlor in Feather City."

Rowena: "Since I'm the princess of Feather City, I'd like to write some laws for when I become queen! (muttering) no white chickens allowed on the highest roost..."

Strelitzia: "So now we all have plans for this week, let's put the plans in the Week-Planner!"

Rowena, Protea and Strelitzia
Photo by Helen IV

Protea: "Fabulous! There, Rowena you write your stuff in blue, I'll do mine in black and Strelly can do hers in red..."

Rowena: "The humans won't know what it says, because it's in Chickenese!"

Protea: "Er, we don't even know what it says... Just so you know, Rowena."

Strelitzia: (impatient) " Who cares! Where's those good-for-nothin' humans of ours?"

Rowena: "Well, let's call them!"

Protea: (puffs out breast as if about to sing) 

All: (shrieking) "Kark poc poc poc Poc Poc KARK KARK POOOOOOOOC! KAK RRARK KARK KARK KAAAAARRRK POC!"

(Pause)

Strelitzia: (in a satisfied voice) "I expect they'll be measuring our food in their hands by now. That noise should've carried quite clearly.... It's only a matter of time now, girls..."

End of chapter one.

Dear Readers, I edited this myself, so it may have some spelling mistakes. Story and photos are also by me--

Helen IV

It's December! I will start posting daily from the 5th until the 25th. But I had to post these pictures of this week's meals before then. The nice thing about these foods is that they both contain strawberries!

Breakfast of yogurt, oats and strawberries
Photo by Helen IV

The yogurt, oats  and strawberry breakfast was made some days ago, but O and L just made the blondies (they're very blond are they?) this morning. Both meals were delicious!

Strawberry and apple blondies
Baked by O
Photo by Helen IV

Introducing Chocolate Sauce and Vanilla Cupcake

My two youngest brothers are Chocolate Sauce and Vanilla Cupcake.....

Vanilla Cupcake is the very
youngest. Photo by Helen IV

Vanilla Cupcake's skin is the colour of vanilla cupcakes... He's got 'fair skin'. And he is now six months old.

Chocolate Sauce is second youngest.
Photo by Helen IV

Chocolate Sauce has dark skin. The colour of chocolate sauce (almost!). He is two years old.

Bathing My Chickens

 Baths, for my chickens, takes place once a month... Last week was time for November Baths, and this time I remembered to take pictures.

Rowena hates bathing. Photo by Helen IV

To bath my three hens, I fill two large, deep buckets with lukewarm water, and a tablespoon of baking soda, and a large pinch of salt... One bucket for rinsing, one bucket for washing. In the washing water I add grated soap. I then select the hen I want to wash first, and hold her firmly with both hands. I lower her into the washing water and let a soak up some water. Then I lift her out of the water and set her down on the ground, then I rub her gently with some soap (careful not to rub hard, in case I pull out feathers) and lower her back into the washing water to rinse off most of the soap. Then I rinse her in the clean rinsing water. I do the same with my other two hens.


Now I have to dry them. If I had a hair-dryer it would be simple. I usually get water in my chickens' ears (by accident!), so they can't balance until their ears get dry. Then, I sit with them on my lap, wrapped in towels. My brothers are always eager to help, so I can usually find three laps for my three chickens to rest on.

My little brother L with one of my hens.
Photo by R

 I always end up with Rowena on my lap, 'cos she's a very wild hen. The other two (Protea and Strelitzia) are quite tame. L holding Strelitzia.

C with my prettiest hen, Protea.
Photo by R

After awhile, the chickens start to nod off in our arms (as you can see with Rowena, the red hen), and are rather calm. We only hold them for 10-15 mins and then their ears (and most of their feathers) should be dry.

Me with my wildest hen, Rowena
Photo by R

Thanks, R for all the nicely taken pictures! I really enjoy bathing my chickens. They, on the other hand, hate bathing.

Next bath-time for the chickens will be Christmas Bath-time! Yay!!!