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| Bantams |
Hens; There is nothing quite like keeping a couple of hens to potter round the garden. They are pleasant birds, no trouble, except perhaps in the summer when they refuse to be shut up because it isn't dark yet but I want to go to bed.
I used to love watching them potter through the soft fruit bed, and though I had a period in Chelmsford when I didn't have any when we moved to Normanby we got a pair of bantams. When I left I gave them to the farm up on the hill. All their runs and chicken house on the trailer, I can still see it as I wished them well.
The bantams were less tame than my brown hens but would follow me round the garden along with Lucy and even my little feral cat took to them, and would lie stretched out on top of their run. Companionship in animals is something we do not talk about, but they are not always chasing each other about.
The thought of hens came to mind because of a photo my daughter sent me this morning from their camping trip (the blow up mattress has already gone flat) a photo of a hen pottering outside the tent, with the caption, another pet to add to my list along with the thousand flies. Camping is fun, I introduced it to her from an early age, we had a canvas tent, the holes prettily decorated with Laura Ashley patches. Camping can be fun, it can also be hell, depends on the weather and whether there is a decent loo around.
My favourite place to camp by myself was at a campsite just outside Solva, it was called Nine Wells, and had a lovely walk down to the cove and even a small Iron Age settlement, Porth-y-Rhaw, one of the many that are to be found on this Pembrokeshire coast.
Photos to come later
Looking after little dinosaurs...
ReplyDeleteUseful dinosaurs though Tom, they provide us with eggs and most of the human population with a chicken dinner.
DeleteWe used to have hens when I was a child but it was a bit pointless as the lady whose land backed on to ours would often give us eggs from her flock. They were free range in the true sense, they used to be able to roam anywhere and laid their eggs anywhere they could. It was great fun hunting out the eggs when I was about seven. I think I may have camped at Solve when I walked the coast path.
ReplyDeleteI first plucked a chicken when I was a child John. Now the poor chicken is popular as the meal of the day for quite a large portion of the population.
DeleteWe had a lot of camping holidays when the kids were young. I never slept the first night because tents are not exactly soundproof and I am such a light sleeper. We had a big flock of poultry when at Ynyswen in the 90s - about 65 hens and 35 ducks. I miss having fresh eggs and primrose pancake batter from the golden yellow yolks. I never had any problems getting them into bed as we would shake a dish of corn when we wanted them in and they would come running!
ReplyDeleteThat is what I miss Jennie the deep yellow yolks of home grown eggs so to speak. I remember as a child staying at another farm in Wales by Lampeter, having to get the turkeys out of perching on the tree to put them in a safe place for the night.
ReplyDeleteAt the farm I had bantams and hens but the bantams were always boss. I had a bantam cockerel and also a Leghorn one - the bantam always told the Leghorn what he could and couldn't do - the Leghorn was scared to bits of him when he fluffed out his feathers and threatened.
ReplyDeleteIt took me ages to find some bantams Pat, but eventually a couple on a farm near Thirsk.
ReplyDeleteI had so many cousins on farms it made no difference I was a city girl. They followed me, too.
ReplyDelete