Because I Don't Like Chickens: Tales of My Flock

[My Pretty Pekins]

*cough*
What with exam week... that turned into three weeks... and has ended with me finding out I'm not sitting 3 Science exams, it's SIX (!?!)... it's been hectic around here for ages! But as always, the chickens have just been going about achieving their aims in life:

Trista: Go broody at least twice each spring. Hatch cute chicks. Repeat.
Tansy: Dig holes.
Twilight: Eat. Absolutely e v e r y t h i n g.
Starli: Steal everyone else's dustbathing spot.
Romy: Sleep under the roosts so I come out in the morning with messes all over my pretty white feathers
Pearl: Try and be the only sane chicken in the entire coop
Pecan: Make a mess. If I annoy either (a) another chicken or (b) one of the humans in the process, so much the better.
Hazel: Escape. Even if it means getting tangled in the mesh on top of the coop, which I'm not meant to get at anyhow.
Goldie: Drink out of a puddle. Bonus points if said puddle is right next to the waterer and I have a human looking at me like I'm crazy.
Maple: Shout when I want to lay an egg. Shout when someone has stolen my nestbox. Shout when I've laid my egg. TL;DR: Shout.
Snowy: Shout louder than Maple
Ebony: Be a thoroughly adorable chicken.

 

[My Pretty Pekins]

Okay wow has it been an age or has it just been an age?

We downsized the flock a little over winter and are hoping for some hatches this year! So the current coop population is:

In the main coop-
- Eden, our Copper Blue Maran - a very friendly girl who mothers our Pekins even though they're older than her
- Pecan, the mischievous Cream Crested Legbar - who still likes messing nestboxes (honestly! exasperating!)
- Goldie, a hybrid hen - who is unbelievably stubborn when it comes to which nestbox she has to lay in
And last but definitely not least,
- Maple, our fiesty Pekin - who was moved into the main coop so she'd stop bullying the other little Pekins. She's settled in there just fine and enjoys bossing all the big hens around.

In the playhouse coop-
- Snowy, our thoroughly adorable Pekin cockerel
- The Inseparables - four hens who were raised together by Ebony and Maple last year. They don't have names yet - we're working on it

And in the broody coop-
- Ebony, our black Pekin hen who has obligingly gone broody! She's sat on seven of our own eggs and we're due a hatch starting probably somewhere around the 3rd or 4th of April, unless I have made a miscalculation

 

[My Pretty Pekins]

And I also have a story that's worth sharing... let's call it

Houdiniette And Her Apprentices

So I've mentioned before that Pecan is possibly the most mischievous chicken we've ever had. Well, something happened recently to prove that.

Recently, we built a little passageway leading from the main coop and run, down the back of the shed, opening out into a bigger turfed run which we can control the chooks' access to. It doesn't have a roof, but the fencing is not far off 7 feet high and we've never had issues with the girls (or boy) trying to fly out.

Until we put the broody coop in there, and Pecan decided to use it as a (literal) jumping off point to explore the rest of the garden.

And, as it turned out, other gardens too.

She hopped up onto the nestbox and then the roof of the broody coop and then from there made the most almighty leap across onto the edge of the fence in this run, swiftly followed by Goldie.

Eden, not to be left out, joined them as well and the trio perched there on the fence for a few moments before Pecan decided to marshal her little chicken army and go elsewhere. So, with impeccable balance, the three chickens all in a row made their way along the fence and then flew onto the perimeter fence of our garden.

Then they walked along that.

I personally didn't see any of the events up to this point, but was made aware of them when I heard the shout,
"Hey! The chickens are on the neighbour's shed roof!"

Great.

I raced outside and sure enough, there was Pecan stood tall on top of this shed roof, with Goldie and Eden not far behind. Half fearing that our elderly neighbour might book an eye test if he looked out of the window and saw, of all things, chickens on his shed roof, I ran and got the ladder to bring them down.

We haven't had the broody coop in that run since!

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Love your stories! Keep us updated! Pecan sounds like a handful of feathers!

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Updates on your flock please!!!

 

[tlcmurphy]

Yes please! And let us know when your first book comes out so we can rush out to get it

 

[Pastel the Rooster]

Does anyone else find it concerning that @my Pretty Peckins has not responded since April last year??

 

[AntiqueB]

People come and go. I often wonder what happens to make them quit BYC.