Well I am going to try and update quickly and without too much complication!
We moved from the residential town area last Easter after selling our house and moving to the countryside so we could have more privacy, peace and less moaning from neighbours. The house we were originally moving too fell through so we stop gaped at another and continued to search for a lonely house with approx 3/4 acres.
Eight months later we found it - it was the original house that we wanted! So now we have our Horses, Joe and Sunny, our pigs Branston & Pickle two dogs, two cats, load of fish (which I have to mention or the boys get upset) and Oliver our snake.
Unfortunately Jemina our duck fell hopelessly in love and we left her on the neighbours lake..
As we now had no neighbours I wanted to get my 'girls' a Cockerel as 'Chebal' upset too many in Heyford and had to go back.
This time it was only us that would be disturbed... I advertised on Free-cycle and ended up with two and six more hens!!
The new hens were a little tatty to say the least but that's was due to 'estate living' and slight over crowing I think, and not because they hadn't been loved. They were up for re-homing because the couple wanted to claim back their garden as they were expecting a baby in July.
Sad but lots of people don't think forward to the ifs and buts....
They were shocked and amazed by all the grass the the ability to roam but were obviously happy because the following day 4/5 laid beautiful eggs. One of them a pure China white..
One of the white hens has no tail feathers (she is in one of the pictures I have posted, she looks like a large Quail!) and her butt was rather red and sore, she appeared to be the target for all the others so I put her in with mine knowing they would at first be grumpy about it, but would they adjust and look after her. A little tea-tree cream on the butt and all seems to be looking good and sprouting feathers! :)
We now have two camps and sometimes they all come together but mostly live in separate halves of the garden/paddock.
They roost in two separate coups which we shut up at night due to the foxes... (well and the fact the Cockerels would have us up at 4.30!!)
Oh nearly forgot to mention Daisey... Now Daisey is how this whole chicken thing started and it was her that I was asked to look after whilst her owners went on holiday. Sadly her best hen friend died and her owner asked if I would take her on as she wasn't ready to get another one yet.
Of course as I appear to now be 'Chicken Rescue' I couldn't say no.
She has been so funny. Again never been free range or see dogs/cats/horses etc but she has so got the measure of everything and is a real character.. she chases Roo our puppy Labrador and takes it upon herself to come in the house whenever the door is left open!
