The little white hen died last night. I had thought she had recovered but then yesterday she spent most of the day sat in the bushes. Come evening she didn’t resist when I picked her up and put her in a warm dry nest box and by this morning she was dead. Shame I really liked the look of her. I am fast coming to the conclusion that these chicks take more looking after than my kids ever did. Steel’s three have been left to their own devices and have taken to foraging far and wide. Unfortunately for me their favourite haunt is my garden. Somehow they have found a way in and every morning, afternoon and evening I have to round them up and chase them out. Never an easy task as one in particular always thinks that attack is the best form of defence and runs straight at me, while the other two run in the opposite direction. Sadie helpfully (not) runs and blocks whatever gate I have opened which causes them to do a swift about turn just as I think I have done it. Maybe she thinks she is stopping them from escaping! I think they are getting in round the back somewhere as I heard them yesterday while cutting down the potatoes so looked over the fence and there they were, weaving their way along between the docks and the thistles, heading for the polytunnel back door. I also spotted another nest, old I think, with four brown and one white egg in it. Infuriating! I have a recipe for Spatchcock Poussin somewhere. Much more of this and I will look it out. I have been deliberating this afternoon on the wisdom of dispatching Ant and Dec when I eventually (if ever) cull the Vorwerks. They, and the hybrids, will be the only birds left that go to the big roost at night . Also they are quite a lot smaller than the sons they have created and if I want to breed for meat then it would make sense to keep the bigger cockerels to breed from. One of the Easter chicks, Sonny (I know, I know I shouldn’t name them), looks quite like Ant and Dec but is a lot bigger and bulkier so would make a wiser choice to breed from; along with Raymond that is. Sentimentality is getting in the way here.
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 15:32:23 +0000
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