Monday, 5 December 2011

hens return

When we moved house our aging bantams moved in with my cousins hens. It was really a return home for them  because our hens were chicks from Jen's birds in 2005.
Sorted.
But not really because my cousin then decided to move home and before we knew it we had to rehome 'our girls' again ... but this time with two of their elderly aunts and also their aging father.
But rehomed they were and we breathed a sigh of relief. Until last week when we got the news that they had to move again.
What to do, especially now that our three hens had become five hens and a cockeral?
We were uncomfortable leaving the hens at Cordwood because we wouldn't see them everyday and we know that there are foxes on site.
So, reluctantly we made arrangements for them to be taken to an an animal rescue centre for rehoming.
But poor Jill was crestfallen at the thought of the hens that are our responsibility going to a recue centre.
So, in the wind and the rain we built a run from old fence panels, reassembled the roosting house and now they have a new home. They are the first official residents at Cordwood. Five superannuated hens and a retired old gentleman of a cockeral.

There's snow in the air today. The lane to Cordwood is not gritted and becomes impassable in snowy weather. I am visualising myseld as a latter day Good King Wenceslas trudging the mile up the lane in deep snow with a sack of corn on my back to feed the chickens.

Perhaps this won't be permanent.

No comments: