Chicken escapades

It’s never a dull moment here.

Today, after a lot of nagging gentle persuasion, Hubster has moved my big chicken coop from the front field to the garden.

It has been like walking in quick sand what with all the mud in the front field and Minty, the pet lamb who is he-sheep sized now, along with his ram friends have been causing a nuisance of themselves.

As soon as you enter the front field, they come bounding over wanting to nuzzle, nibble and play. They are lovely and are being friendly but they are so strong that I have been knocked off my feet a couple of times.

As the name suggests, the front field is near the main road, so rather than cause a public scene every time I feed or clean out the chucks, they are now within easy reach of our back door.

The Hubster did a great job fencing off the garden and then it was time to let the chucks out into their new home.

At the moment we have a Buff Orpington hen and cockerel called Ken and Deirdre and four Bantams which are yet to be named.

In my chicken-breed naivety (I know Orpingtons, Warrens and Silkies breeds) I thought a Bantam was just a miniature of a larger breed. I was wrong. Bantams can fly.

Within 15 minutes of their new area, two of the five Bantams had flown into the nearby tree. It was funny but I am worried about them.

If they come down too early in the morning, a fox could be lying in wait.

Thankfully, as darkness has now fallen, one of the Bantams was asleep on a lower part of the tree so Hubster went and put her in a small coop we have as she seemed to have been pecked by the others. I’ve called her Cookie as I think she must be quite tough to endure the pecking.

Who knows what we will be met with in the morning. The tree the four are nesting in is right outside Boo’s bedroom so I suppose I should thank my lucky stars they’re not cockerels.

With the ten ex-battery hens coming on Saturday, I just hope the pecking order sorts itself out by then.