Today Eddie’s excitement level peaked…..watching us through the sunroom window as we moved in the new chickens!! Much “yearking (mix of yelps and barks) by the Russells as am guessing they thought “mmmn supper“!
No afraid not, no “terrierising” the new hens (dogs and other animals kept well separated)! We have added to our family with 7 hens, all rescued from death row, at one year old, they have had no experience of life except as battery hens. I can assure you that is no life, as caged birds they are kept in about 1sq ft (max) never allowed to roam, they have few feathers and appear very thin and tatty. Thanks to a wonderful organisation who rescue these hens on the day they are due to be slaughtered, anyone can adopt them as pets, to live out there life happily experiencing space, fresh air and grass!! Hopefully they’ll lay some eggs too, then the dogs will get the benefit of daily eggs with their feed - better than nothing hey ~Eddie?! Our chicken “Henny“, will meet them in a week or so, when they’re a bit stronger and more confident. The phrase “pecking order” is used to describe many animal hierarchy systems including dogs, but it refers to chickens and we don’t want Henny acting “the boss” to them too early! Else they’ll get too frightened, they need to recover themselves as chickens first!
My thanks go out to both Jamie Oliver (the chef), Liz Jones (column in Mail on Sunday) for bringing to my attention the plight of over 2 million hens kept in battery cages, out of sight and thereby out of mind! To find out how you can help save battery hens, visit http://www.bhwt.org.uk/ They make lovely pets, and there are other ways you can help to through donations or sponsoring. More importantly support free range chickens, lets help put a stop to these cruel batteries and factory farming of chickens, you can help now by making adjustments to your shopping- look out for - “free range” and remember other products like mayonnaise, cakes etc that use eggs, if you like “hidden eggs” - look for products labelled with free range.
Unexpected arrivals, as yet the Terriers know nothing about, are 7 baby rabbits. Yep, did say 7!! Thing is we were about to neuter the male, born last year, but he shouldn’t have been old enough to “mate” his fellows yet….Oh Yes He Was! So he did….breed like rabbits! So all 3 females gave birth this week and babies galore! I have the young male in question in a cage away from the ladies now! Hope we can move the youngsters on at 6 weeks, else “rabbit village” will become “rabbit town”…or “City”!!!
Plenty for the dogs to watch out of the window now then….Don’t call it a picture window for nothing!!!!
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