Wow, life in this valley can be quite adventurous and chicken coop life too.

Let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, just last week actually, we cleaned the inside chicken coop of dirt and browney-white shit (sorry for the image but that’s country life for you, lol) and replaced it with wood chippings. We added some baskets aswell so that our two chicken can start laying eggs and then, because it felt empty, we decided to get more chicken (plus one randy cockeral is just too much for two hens)

So on Sunday we went to a village where they hold this really big street market once a week with stands selling just about everything to hoards of people. We waded past fruit stands, clothes stands, music stands, shoe stands and lots more stands just to get to the animal stand. There’s plenty of interesting things in that market and the animal stand is no exception. They, rabbits, guinea pigs, chicken, partridge, quail, cockatiels and budgies. They’ve even had a gorgeous white pheasant and some peacocks.

So peering into the cages we chose six chicken, three small ones called quicas and three multicoloured ones which look quite pretty. So with a box full of chicken we headed home to introduce them to where they will stay for the rest of their lives. I say “will” tentatively as you shall see. The three little ones has some difficulty as they weren’t able to use the perches like normal chicken but the other new ones did. The difference between the old ones and the new ones is that the new ones get a bit hysterical around us humans, which doesn’t work in our favour...

The next day after getting these chicken, Mika was letting them out into their enclosure when all of a sudden out flew one of the multicoloureds right over the enclosure fence! Well, we just couldn’t see where it had gone amongst all those trees and bushes. Will it survive? Will we get it back? We hoped so. Well it did come to hang around near the others because it was lonely, but no matter how we tried it could not be coaxed nor caught and we don’t think it will just fly back in, it’s got too feral.

But that’s not the end of it. Another day I (Adam) went into the enclosure and wanted to have a closer look at the new ones and even see if I could pick one up. What a mistake, before I could blink a multicoloured flew up and out! So I ran out through the gate to catch it with a “interested” dog helping me corner it. But it flew away. BUT I decided to follow it anyway where I realised, passing the gate, I’d left it open. Well one of the quicas decided to escape running into some undergrowth. Even with fast legs and two “sniffer” dogs I just couldn’t find them.

Since then I’ve seen the second escapee twice, the first time I almost caught it and the second time I saw it with the first feral one, so at least they have company out in the wild and they’re still looking healthy and well-fed. The lost quica on the other hand has not been seen and we’re not sure if it learnt to perch which it would need with so many hungry ground animals prowling around.

So we’ve done some work to stop this from happening again. Using a net we have covered the enclosure which, we hope, will stop any more flying out and also stop those hungry eagles getting at them aswell. The three remaining new ones have settled in and have found the older ones to be good teachers in the “Chicken Way”, scratching and pecking at the organic left-over food we give them rather than chemical rubbish that they could be fed. The two quicas have also managed to learn to perch above the ground alongside the others.

These chicken can be hard work, with something to do on a daily basis, but their own work, as egg factories and as compost creators, more than makes up for it. Also it’s fun sometimes just to watch them and their curious behaviour. But the best is yet to come, because in mid-spring we hope to have some chicks, which will be another challenge altogether.

(Picture above: The older ones)