Fowl Not Foul - July 2000

Saturday 1st July was the day of Stroud Show. Everything had been prepared during the last few days in June - Show hens had been washed, Show eggs chosen and decorated. Once the rest of the flock had been fed, Ernie, Little Wing, Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma, Flathead and Attilla the Hen were all put into paper-lined boxes, and everything was loaded into the car. On arrival at the Show, the hens were installed into their cages, eggs onto their plates, and we vacated the poultry tent ready for the judging to commence. When we returned after judging had finished, we found that:-

In the Rare Breed Female class, we had the following results- Ernie the Cream Legbar - 2nd ; and Little Wing the Jersey Giant - 3rd

In the Light Breed Female class - Flathead the Ancona - 2nd ; and Attilla the Hen the Welsummer - 3rd

Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma.:- She won Best In Show at this event last year, but won nothing at all this year.

And in the egg classes: - 3 Brown Eggs class - Eggs from Little Wing - 1st ; and Eggs from Attilla the Hen - 3rd; 3 White Eggs class - Eggs from Ashley - 2nd ; and Eggs from Flathead - 3rd; 1 Egg class - Egg from Ashley - 2nd ; and Egg from Little Wing; Plus 4 entries in the Decorated Egg by an Adult class - 3rd & 2nd

We returned from the Show very pleased with our results. The Show hens were delighted to be let out of their boxes, and strutted sedately around the garden for a while, before eagerly finding dustbaths to wallow in so that they could make their clean-washed feathers dirty again.

From foreground to background:

Nicad, Flathead, Ever-Ready,

Little Wing, Attilla the Hen,

Michael Caine Alan Partridge Brahma

and

White Tara.

I checked on the other birds, and discovered to my dismay that Greencell, Biscuit and Professor Freud were missing. During the night, the badger had paid us another visit. He had pushed himself under the fence, pushing aside the bricks I had placed there to prevent him, and leaving a hole which the 3 hens had obviously escaped through. I blocked the hole so that no other birds could escape, and hoped that the 3 explorers would return. I expected to find them at chickens' bedtime, crouched on the other side of the fence or gate, waiting to be let in. But alas, there was no sign of any hens - apart from a report from one of the neighbours that he had seen a loose chicken further up the road, around the corner. The chicken had fled when it saw his dog, and he kindly told us where she went. So we went searching for the hen, but found nothing - not even a scratch mark in the ground.

On 2nd July I let Alkacell out of her safe haven in the shed, to see if the rest of the flock would accept her without violence. I had fitted a wire front to the shed door, so that Alkacell and the rest of the flock could see each other and communicate. The Show birds had accepted Alkacell, the problem birds were the rest of the rescued hens, who have extremely aggressive characters due to their time spent in un-naturally close confinement at the Battery Farm. As she wandered about the garden, Alkacell attracted the attention of Duracell, who chased and attacked her. Nicad then noticed the commotion, and joined in with Duracell. Alkacell ran toward me for help, so I put her back into the shed for some peace and quiet.

Also on 2nd July I printed some leaflets reporting the loss of Biscuit, Greencell and Professor Freud, offering a reward for their return, and asking people to check their gardens. I distributed them in the area, and was contacted with sightings of the birds, but on investigation found nothing but a few droppings and scratch marks.

On 3rd July I tried letting Alkacell out of the shed again, as she had been sitting next to the wire, balefully staring out into the garden. She was obviously bored with having to spend her days in the shed, even though it was for her own protection. Luckily, she had a quiet day in the garden, and was only pecked once by another bird. She had been acting sensibly, keeping herself to herself and trying her best not to attract the attention of the others. The rest of the flock let her eat with them, and by fowl bedtime her crop was full. She didn't go up to the henhouse to sleep on perches with the othert hens, instead she made the shed her roost, and was perfectly happy to sleep there on her own every night. On the following day there was also no trouble, even though Alkacell had not slept with the rest of the flock that night. I was very relieved that the flock had let her re-integrate, and had finally accepted that even though she had a slightly odd-looking right leg, she was not a danger or hindrance to them.

Also on 3rd July I had a call reporting a sighting of Biscuit, and either Greencell or Freud. I went to search the garden where the sightings had occurred, but to no avail.

I kept searching for the wayward hens for the next three days, but found no sign of them. I guessed that poor Greencell, Professor Freud and Biscuit had provided a good meal for a hungry litter of fox or badger cubs - if they had, then at least they hadn't gone to waste, and had served a purpose of helping other creatures to live.

Biscuit

Greencell

Professor Freud

Meanwhile, Pseudo-Swan was recovering well from the his nocturnal encounter with the local badger. His thigh wound was healing quickly, but his pride would definitely take longer to heal than his flesh wound. Since the badger attack, poor Pseudo would run away from anything in the garden which wasn't a chicken, and retreat into his house at every opportunity. He was also extremely quiet, keeping silent when he would usually honk, such as at fowl feeding times and whenever strangers entered the garden. Sian the goose swapped roles with Pseudo, protecting him and always placing herself between Pesudo and anything which made him feel uncomfortable. She also became more vocal, taking over that job from Pseudo too. The injured gander went back to the Vet on 3rd and 11th July, to have the staples in his thigh checked. Everything appeared to be healing nicely, and it was hoped that on his third visit since the attack, the staples could be removed.

Darwin continued to be broody, and on 12th July, her 50th day of broodiness, little Roadkill thought that she would join Professor Darwin in the nestbox.

On 18th July Pseudo-Swan finally had his leg staples removed. He was still shaken by the badger attack, but his confidence was slowly but surely increasing. He had stopped running away from the hens, but was still very wary of any cats sneaking around the borders of the garden. He and Sian were still moulting heavily, and were therefore naturally nervous anyway.

On the evening of Saturday 23rd July I was feeling ill, and unfortunately I did not close the henhouse door properly. I discovered this on Sunday morning, and unfortunately there were bloodstained feathers outside the henhouse door. Following the trail of feathers which led under the fence and across next door's garden, I found some badger fur caught on the wire at the bottom of the fence. Poor Professor Helm had been taken by a badger, very probably the same badger which had injured Pseudo-Swan last month. Though the henhouse door was open, the badger hadn't taken any more birds, and all of them were still sitting on their perches as though waiting for me to let them out. Only Duracell was roaming the garden, soaking wet. She was soaked to the skin, and the night had been dry - obviously the badger had tried to catch Duacell as well, but she must have fooled the badger by ending up in the water, and the splash may well have frightened the badger away. When I checked Duracell I found not a scratch on her, and none of the other birds were injured either.

In the evening, at fowl bedtime, Duracell, Ernie and White Tara rather sensibly decided to sleep in the shed with Alkacell. They obviously did not want roost in the henhouse that night. Maybe the badger attack had reminded White Tara and Ernie of their encounter with the fox back in 1998 - it had obvously frightened Duracell.

On the morning of Monday 25th July, I discovered badger toothmarks on the henhouse door. Apart from that, all was well.

On Thursday 28th July the neighbours updated their garden, planting lots of flowers and young plants. It looked lovely, until on the following day Ashley escaped, and dug up three of the young plants. I caught her, and placed her in the Ark so that she would not be able to cause the same damage. I added the broody Roadkill and Professor Darwin to give little Ashley some company, to allow the other birds to lay in the nestboxes of the henhouse (as the broodies had been preventing them from doing this), and to hopefully discourage the broody behaviour. Darwin had now been broody for 66 days, and Roadkill for 17 days.