Some of you will already know Terri – so named after one of the Simpsons purple twins. She’s a light Sussex bantam for anyone who is interested. Actually Kim – did I ever tell you about looking after hens? I’m not sure if I did. If I did, then here’s a recap, but if not, this is what you do.
Buy a coop – mine came from a shed supplier but you can also get them from farming kit suppliers. I’d recommend one with a big door – my last coop was hell to clean because the entrance for me to get in was small and cramped. This one is much easier to access. I spread wood shavings across the floor of it and in the nest boxes and clean it out once every three months or so, using the old shavings in my compost heap – it helps make great compost.
Buy some hens. They’re dead cheap – mine cost £4 each in the free-ads. You need to feed them a complete food – either layers’ mash or layers’ pellets – I use pellets because they are less messy. I mix a sack of layers’ pellets with a sack of cleaned, mixed corn into a dustbin then feed them the mix. They get a big scoop of mixed food a day and always have fresh water in a washing up bowl in easy access. Other than what I feed them, they forage for snails, slugs, ants, worms, fallen apples etc. I used to have a problem with ants before having the hens – not any more!!! The two bags of food cost about £13 for the two and last about three months for four birds. I give mine free access to the whole garden. You have to be a bit careful they can’t get out – although they can’t fly properly, they can sort of jump-fly so one of mine can get over a 3’ high fence….the others either can’t or won’t. You’ll need to shut them up in their coop at dusk so foxes can’t get them but other than that, they’re no bother, loads of fun, wonderful garden allies and their eggs…..well, once you’ve eaten a really fresh egg, you’ll never want another supermarket egg as long as you live.
Terri’s sibling is Sherri of course and she is a star of my 2004 diary, she’s been hit more times than most of the other pics in that gallery. I’m not sure if it’s a pervy title thing ‘fat bottomed girls’ or if it’s my little sis’s hilarious and extremely un-Jan-like comment that sends the search engines into a frenzy. Whatever, I suspect people didn’t quite get what they bargained for when they see Sherri’s feathery fat bottom looking out at them from the pages of pbase.
Terri was right at the bottom of the pecking order in our little tiny flock of hens, that now only numbers three birds since Molly died a peaceful death just before Christmas as she basked in the late afternoon sunshine. Terri got mercilessly bullied....it seems funny to think we were once so cautious with them DM was wearing motorbike boots to pick her up, now we do it bare handed and shove them under our arms no bother.... by Milly and Molly, much older birds. Milly was leader of the pack and Molly was her enforcer. Now Molly has left this earth, Milly has lost her power and you can see a new equilibrium forming, with Terri on top. She always had aspirations for head of the pecking order but was too young and inexperienced to enforce them when she didn’t have a willing enforcer in Sherri.
Sherri is a loner, a ‘people’ chicken, not a chicken’s chicken. She is my trusty gardening companion. Last night, after work, I nipped out into the garden to do a bit of digging in my veggie plot – how nice it is to be able to do that…..a year ago, when I’d finished work, I’d have needed to get in my car and do battle on the M25 for an hour and a half before getting home too steamed up to work. Sherri came to help as usual. Last night, though, Terri came too and kept Sherri at bay with a few well-aimed pecks to the comb so she could scoop up all those lovely (not) wriggly worms and insects that I was turning up. Ah – so Terri is growing in confidence eh?
Today, I see Milly looking decidedly fed-up while Terri struts around like the Queen of Sheba. Hmmmm. So, it seems as though the old lady (Milly) is finally getting her come-uppance. No enforcer has left her vulnerable to Terri’s advances.
Am I worried about bird flu? You bet I am – I have been terrified since it was found in France and Germany. Now though I have calmed down. I’ve made the decision not to panic and not to get my knickers in a twist over something that might or might not ever find its way here. My girls will NOT be suffocated to death and they will NOT be cruelly culled if I have anything to do with it. They are my pets. Part of my family. They will be treated with dignity and kindness and if the unthinkable happens and DEFRA insist on a cull in our area, they will be ‘put to sleep’ by a vet. For now though, the swan found in Scotland was proven to be a non-indigenous bird and they think it may have been migrating when it died and was just washed up here. Let’s hope so.
Fat bottomed girls rock.
Last year, I was hallucinating - weird stuff goes on on my dreams.....
