The Great Escape

 

 

Having recently built a larger run at the top of the garden to house my growing flock of poultry, I have since discovered that chickens are extremely adept at helping to find places I over looked in the process of building.

 

For 4 days now i have looked out of my living room window to find Agnes looking back at me with her head slightly cocked to one side with an expression that can only read 'if you're going to build it do it right woman!'

 

This chicken can only be described as a chick with attitude, she escapes on a tri-daily basis and i am completely stumped as to how on earth she is doing it! Surely she could put houdini to shame? In fact i am considering changing her name!

 

When we named her the series Mrs Browns Boys was newly on the tv and i enjoyed watching it so much that i felt the character of Mrs Brown should be immortalised in chicken form. I had no idea how very apt i was being in choosing this particular chicken to bare the name. Mrs Brown is famously funny, fierce and reminds me of my late maternal grandmother in so many ways, this made the tv series all the more funny for me and Agnes the chicken has continued with the hilarity.

 

If there is trouble to be had she is guaranteed to be at the centre of it. Most people think im mad when i say that chickens have personalities much like cats and dogs and other pets of 'normal' description and personally i found it hard to believe before i had chickens as pets.

But believe me when I say I am not insane or 'the mad chicken lady' ... well maybe i am but the fact remains that chickens do indeed have little personalities of their own.

On close observation of my little brood i have discovered that Red our Rhode Island Red Cockrel is no more in charge of the flock than I am. Agnes rules supreme and is quite happy to let us know on a regular basis.

 

Ha! thought you had me didnt you? is an expression i face on a daily basis and while it is often frustrating in the extreme it is also highly entertaining. Agnes and i will continue to battle on for matriarchal power and it stands to reason that i will invariably lose but i think that Agnes enjoys these small spats almost as much as i do!

My opponent! 

Tales from the chicken coop

 

 

First let me introduce the ladies (and gentleman)

 

Agnes is the alpha hen, she is the 'Maggie Thatcher' (controversial i know) of our little flock and rules with an iron wing.

She is featured here with our other two Red Shavers, Mrs B and Florence demonstrating exactly what she thinks of my David Bailey impression with the camera.

Florence

Mrs B getting her feathers back after her first moult (until i kept chickens i didnt know they did this and accused the farmer of trying to sell me duff birds!!!)

 

Red is our lovely boy (although the peck scars on my husbands hands say differently) who loves women and children but seems to dislike his domain being invaded by grown men

Red as a 3 week old chick

Red as he is now attempting to rule the roost although Agnes has other ideas!

 

Moving along to Snowdrop our White rock hybrid who is a pullet and approximately 20 weeks old like her counterparts Bluebell and Cinders.

Cinders and Bluebell

Snowdrop

Now you have been introduced to our large breeds there are just 4 more little ones to introduce. Our Bantams

Wiggle aged 3 weeks

 

Wiggle and Star aged 3 weeks and OMG were they cute!!!!!

Wiggle grew into a lovely young lady!

Star featured with her friend and confidant Hearty

Matilda wanting to know why i dared to approach her run without a handful of corn

Group shot with Matilda photo bombing Hearty and Star!

 

Ok so now you have met our Chickens i should also introduce our quackers

Rosy with her mate Jim (now sadly deceased)

Daisy (now deceased) with Nikki

Our two khaki campbell girls have had a hell of a winter, we lost the three other members of our duck family to the severe winter despite taking numerous precaution and in Jims case going as far as to administer antibiotics daily via injection (vet taught me) and having him get better only to die suddenly a month later. Keeping poultry is at times as heart breaking as it is rewarding. I get so attached to my birds and losing any one of them is a blow.

I started life living in South East London on a council estate and while in many ways i still view that as home, i never really fitted in there. for reasons which i wont go into i found myself living in North Wales with young children and believe it or not an almost paralysing fear of birds.

My Son Ethan has Autistic Spectrum Disorder and for his 7th Birthday he gave me the terrifying revelation that he wanted to keep chickens and could he have some as a birthday present please and thank you very much.... AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!

With trepidation and my husband along side to do the actual handling of the dreaded birds i reluctantly agreed to buy 5 red shavers from a farmer which were year olds and just coming out of first moult (even if i did say they looked decidedly oven ready and made a fool of myself accusing the farmer of trying to sell us duff or diseased birds....(blush) )

We set up our first house and run and i avoided contact with them as much as possible. One day I decided 'this is stupid its about time i tried at least' So first i stroked one while my hubby held it to stop it flapping, next i picked one up and held it at arms length... and so on.

I have to say it must have worked because we now own no less than 7 breeds of chicken and 2 ducks and i deal with them daily. in fact i positively love my chooky cuddles. If we had more room i would love to have more chickens but my neighbours are patient with me and i dont want to rock the boat (eggs as bribery works i have found) Maybe some day i will achieve my dream and have a small holding for my birds instead of a back garden which they have taken over. I have my eye on a few other breeds and would love to one day maybe get into showing my girls. but alas that is in the future as along with my brood of chooks i also have a husband, 4 sons, 2 step children (at intervals) 2 cats a dog and a rabbit to take care of. I am so lucky to have such a chilled out landlord!!!!!

I hope to update this blog regularly with tales from the coop i hope i dont bore too many people with it!!!! Thanks Liz x