News From The Chook House

A week ago Gine asked me to take on four chickens her friend owned as she was moving to a new rental and couldn't take them with her. At 9.15pm on the 25th January Gareth and the friend arrived in the dusk and we went out to the hen house and settled a rooster and three hens in with my flock. I had no idea what the chickens looked like until the next morning when I went out to feed everybody. The rooster was a fine white fellow with fluffy feathers and there was a matching hen to complete the set. There were also two bantam black whatevers who seemed quiet and interested in what was happening.

I'd worried that the new arrivals would be picked on. I should not have been concerned as within a day the white rooster had staked his claim to the hen house and after a few bloody battles had become top chook. I kept them confined for three days but last Tuesday it was so hot I had to let them out to join the others. I had no problems returning them to the shed later in the day- my problem was getting my old fowls to go in there with them. Now I have a new routine- I feed as per usual in the morning and afternoon but leave the door open until dark so that everyone is brave enough to go inside to perch after which I sneak out in the dusk to shut them in for the night.


The sad news though is that Cordelia my big black maybe-Aracauna hen is dying. For the last year or so she has become increasingly senile and over the past few weeks I have had to play hide and seek with her before carrying her to bed with her staring blankly at me clucking "Who the hell are you?". I have no idea how old she is as I acquired her as an adult several years ago. I named her Cordelia after a character in Brideshead Revisited (a young girl who became a nun) as she shared the same disapproving expression as if you'd told her a dirty joke as she didn't quite approve. Plus the thought that she laid green eggs added to her burden.