Light Sussex Chicken and Nail Art

Chickens and nail polish: two of my favourite things. (alongside my family, and jewellery, and running down mountains. I have lots of favourite things:D). So, I thought – why not combine them? I’m fortunate enough to have quite a variety of chickens, so I’ll use them as inspiration for some nail art, and also give a bit of information on the chook.

First up, light sussex chicken

here are some beautiful Light Sussex hens, image from http://www.wanorastud.com/lightsussex.htm

 

Sussex information: “Bred to be a dual purpose bird, it is one of the most productive breeds we have today. The hen will lay around 260 large eggs that are cream to light brown in colour. The Sussex is one of the oldest breeds that are still in existence today. The Sussex chicken is an alert but docile breed that can adapt to any surrounding easily. They are good foragers. Whilst they are quite happy to be free range, they will also be fine if kept in a confined space. They can occasionally but not very often go broody.” Information from this great website here.

Jane, foraging around with Beetle (the black Orpington pullet in the foreground)

I am lucky enough to have four Light Sussex hens, and because they remind me of ladies wearing old fashioned English Lawn dresses, I’ve given them good ashioned names… Jane, Eliza, Virginia and Mary. They are good, regular layers (having a break over winter, but Eliza gives me an egg 5 days a week). Docile? Not so much, they’re first at the door for food and are right at the top of the pecking order. Also, all four of them went madly broody last summer, so I’d not be saying ‘possibly may go broody’ to people, more ‘WILL go broody and bite your hands if you try and move them’. None of them managed to successfully hatch their eggs though, maybe they will this year.

And my nails?

This was three coats of E 44 – white: a Japanese polish, streaky but pretty nice in three coats. I used the dotting tool to make the combs, with L.A.Colors Cranberry Red. Neck feathers are a light gradient of Cover Band Sticks ‘n’ Stones with black teardrop nail jewels; the beaks are gold teardrop nail jewels, and the eyes are orange nail jewels. I used a top coat of Kleancolor Fast Dry.

My favourite one!

I really enjoyed doing these. I wasn’t expecting to paint chickens heads on my nails, but that’s what I found myself doing 😀

And sometime this week I’ll pick another of my chickens and get more inspiration from them! 🙂