Yes, there are so many different fora and blogs about back garden chickens. But I need to tell you about mine.
They jump.
Sophie, at the grand old age of tree (she’s a hybrid, and so old before her time, she likes early nights now and is no longer a party chicken), can jump almost 2 feet without using her wings. She does this at the gate of their pen, showing her excitement at seeing me come out of the back door. Maybe I will let her out to play in the flower beds! Or even better, the Lettuce patch!
Dave, the other oldster, has taken the two new girls in hand and taught them to jump too. All four girls jump to reach the miniature red gooseberries at the top of the (supposedly inaccessible to hens) standard bush. And all the raspberries which are on 3 foot canes at least, are now gone. Try to visualise oversize dumpy hummingbirds and you are almost seeing what I am currently smiling at.
Yup, these girls could jump for TeamGB . If they accepted chickens, which they don’t and that’s terrible discrimination, shouldn’t be allowed these days…
And yes, Dave is a girl. She lays. Never get a 12 year old boy to name a chicken is my advice.
Oh and the new ones are Zena and Hera. They are party chickens, not wanting to go into the coop until very late, often popping out from it if they hear you creeping across the garden lawn, thus wrecking what is very probably your fourth attempt to close the coop door. Sigh.
