Chooks

Front to back: Larry, Pollito and Turulata.

Three magnificent chooks are now living in our garden. Their names, after careful deliberations and many instances of fierce debate (ha!), have been decided. Larry (after Larry Bird), Pollito (after the evil bird in Despicable Me) and Turulata (Spanish for flabbergasted).

The Coop

The suburban housing prevalent in the ACT allows this kind of self-sustainable (ad)venture. All you need is a coop (easy to purchase, assemble and clean), the chooks, the time and the effort. Come wintertime, the chooks will spend lots of time inside the coop, resting on the straw and waiting for the sun to break through the darkness, the fog and the cold. But now, as summer approaches, they appear to be having a great time.

And only twenty-four hours after their arrival, Turulata has presumably laid the first egg. The first of many, we hope. 

The word 'chook' is one of my favourite Australianisms. I remember how it confounded Professor Jeremy Munday during an excellent translation workshop he conducted at Monash University many years ago!

Benvingudes! Bienvenidas! Welcome home, chooks!

Larry - Buffalo Tom