Waifs and strays

We seem to be the go-to family if people find injured animals or have an animal-related crisis. Neighbours have knocked on the door wanting help with injured deer (roe and muntjac), bats and various birds over the years and we're often the first thought for lonely poultry.

Meet Florence. She's a beautiful bantam who has recently lost her companion, Mary, to a fox attack in the middle of the day. Her owner, noting the irony of the years she's spent campaigning against fox hunting, has decided she can't face buying her another companion and risking the same thing again and so Florence has come to live with us. She's in the Eglu in the main run for a few days which seems to help with introductions.

Establishing the pecking order with Lorraine...

There's been a certain amount of squaring up to the other chickens and it's less stressful if it's through bars.

Remember Hedwig? She took a while to fully integrate. There was no bullying but she always seemed to be apart and I did wonder if she was avoiding our drake. All of a sudden she became part of the flock and now waddles around happily and snoozes with the others.

Hedwig and friends

Speckles came from my nieces family when they moved and no longer had space. She had been with an elderly bantam for a long time and I think she likes having more company. Apart from a short spate of permanently managing to be on the wrong size of the fence she's joined the flock with no problems.

Speckles with Bessie in the front

The feather duster at the front is Bessie, a tiny bantam who we acquired with her brother, Balthazaar, from a friend in the village whose bantam had hatched some eggs and needed a home for the boys.

Balthazaar doing his best to impress a distinctly uninterested Florence

Bernard and Queenie

Bernard and Queenie came from friends in the village who could no longer look after them. We went to pick up the two unnamed hens with a cardboard box, expecting a couple of smallish commercial layers. The white one is huge and seemed like a small turkey so she became Bernard, after the famous British turkey supplier Bernard Matthews. With her ruff, her friend's obvious name was Queenie, inspired by  BlackAdder 2 where Nursie reveals her real name is Bernard...

Queenie and Bernard

In two weeks time we collect three ex-commercial free range layers through a national rehoming scheme. I'm thinking Peggy, Mildred and Klinger (Don't think I want a chicken called Hotlips...)

You have to be a MASH fan