Half term and hen houses

"Hello" said the voice on the ansafone "Can you look after Jemima for a couple of days? It's half term and we have to go North"

Well, "Of course" we said "She's more than welcome anytime"

So she duly turned up on Tuesday morning with Carrie and young Jack in tow.... "She's been moulting terribly" said Carrie "and her pond's been frozen for weeks and the garden's been frozen and she hasn't laid an egg for ages".

"And she looks so thin" Carrie continued...

Well, I was a little concerned about what we'd see...but actually when Jemima turned up she looked like a normal healthy young duck. Clearly she wasn't concerned about the lack of swimming facilities at home 'cos she didn't make a dive for the pond. In fact, for the first few hours she ignored the pond in favour of hunting for worms and bugs in the poultry pen. She was a bit bolshy too with the rest of the flock, pushing them around with her not inconsiderable weight.... and generally letting them know she was back in the fold. But 24 hrs later life had settled down and everything was back to normal and she was there with the rest of the ducks being sociable and pecking about and sleeping with them. She is nowhere as noisy as she has been on her previous visits. Perhaps she just misses company at home, though she's had the odd pheasant to keep her company...... She was one of the first into the Poultry Palace in the evening too, settling down into a cosy corner before the rest of the ducks trundled in for the night.....

The call ducks meanwhile have been pairing up for spring.... we have six males and ten females and that seems to be working out ok: all the drakes are proudly chaperoning their chosen females and defending them against anyone who gets too close. They've started laying eggs in 'secret' places: if they are not secret enough the chickens destroy them so today I've moved some bales of hay into the poulty palace and tomorrow I'll add some 'roofs' so that the ducks can have little houses which the chickens cannot get into. That way hopefully the ducks will safely lay their eggs without the chickens pecking all of them to bits.

Elsewhere in the poultry world we bought a new hen house when we went to fetch Precious's new shelter. It's very smart and cosy enough for up to 10 birds. We've put it in the orchard where there is lots of grass and moved a few special hens into it. Conchita was the first: she'd not been happy with her previous flock - perhaps she was missing Merlin - and had been pecking under her wing. At first, seeing blood, I thought she'd been attacked by one of the other hens or even the cockerel, but she continued to show the same symptoms for a couple of days when isolated so it may have been more of a stress thing.... We gave her two weeks in the barn alone and she calmed down. So we gave her first call on the new house. Then we moved the two Buff Orpingtons - Honey and Syrup - who'd been a little shy in the big flock. Then the next evening we moved a young cockerel. He'd actually been destined for the pot but when moved in to the 'going to the pot' pen with the other 6 cockerels he ended up being beat up by the others. How did we notice this? Well, he kept burying his head under the hen house and any other 'building' and screaming loudly. I felt sorry for him and rescued him, thinking he must be a sensitive soul and deserving of a second chance. Then we moved a young Light Sussex hen and finally we moved Brindl Bhaji, the Brahmin hen who's been getting set upon by the young cockerels to the point where a large number of her back feathers have already fallen out. With the exception of the cockerel therefore this is now our rare breeds flock. The cockerel doesn't have a name yet - he's starting to take his role seriously so we'll see how he shapes up. Then we'll name him. Hopefully he'll pass his quiet nature on to his offspring. But if he's a wimp he'll have to go..... Time will tell. Here he is pecking around with Honey and Syrup who are clearly his favourites....