Four hens took up residence on our return. from a family holiday in Lyme Regis. That was in 2011.
They came as day old chicks and started off life in the kitchen under a warm light - it was around Easter time.
There was the hen with attitude Piou Piou - who pecked Joel's legs mercifully (mind you , he wasn't exactly blameless with a big stick!)
There was Clochette, who was snatched at a very young age by Slinky Malinky, a neighbourhood cat.
She was replaced by another Clochette who turned out to behave as if she was deaf and not one of the group.
Then there were Lucy and Lily. I never was able to tell the difference.
The first eggs were laid that summer so I kept them safely till the children returned from holiday.
Thats the order in which the hens died too. Piou Piou and Clochette had decent Christian burials and afterwards we drank irn bru instead of rum - as at a wake in Guadeloupe. All the rum had gone in the Christmas cake and a Simnel cake that year. Not that we'd have had it anyway - rum makes me dream of giant spiders.
From here on Lucy and Lily are interchangeable.
One of them was killed by a fox. Charis was in the garden at the time and heard a furious flapping and saw the branches of the bush moving.
And the other one lives to this day. She is now called Henny. Recently we thought she was ill but it turned out she was broody! I ask you! at 5 years old! A neighbour who also keeps hens brought 15 eggs for her to sit on, which she has done faithfully for the last couple of weeks. Two of the eggs hatched out on Friday morning and today the neighbout has taken Henny and the 2 chicks to his house along the road where they will be looked after.
The garden is so quiet with no hens pecking around.but I shall visit them soon and take some photos.
I will move my garden chair to a part of the garden where I can see the bee hives. Its a bit more difficult to form a relationship with bees though.
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