We’ve been “re-chickened!”

Following on from our ghastly discovery that Signor Volpe had done for our chickens, we went to the chicken man yesterday and replaced our lovely Three Degrees with the Three Degrees II. We had considered changing the names to try and erase the memory. I had thought of Cluck, Cluck and Cluck as it would be dead easy to get them to come you as you impersonate clucking noises when you want to get their attention. However La D vetoed that one on the grounds that no-one would go round clucking to get chicken attention unless they were demented. So then I said why don’t we call them The Alans. I’ve always wanted to have a pet called Alan and this way I could have three! La D looked at me as though I had gone completely round the twist. Mind you I don’t have a very good record for suggesting names. I have just sent off some ideas for our latest granddaughter’s name – she is due mid-May. I’ve yet to hear back from my son on that. Oh dear. Enough.

Anyway our new chicks seem to be bedding down well. Bertie needless to say has shown a lot of interest, particularly when we went to collect them as he was with us - it’s a family thing.

They haven’t come out of the coop yet. We’ll keep them in until tomorrow and then just open the door and they can gently acclimatise themselves with their new surroundings as well as come to terms with a large white animal that will no doubt bark at them and wave his sail-like tail.

Of course they are quite young. Their coxcombs are very small at the moment and quite pale, but that will quickly change.

The other thing of course is that will dent the supply of fresh eggs severely. I don’t expect to have any eggs from them until the end of the month really. We’ve only got about 12 eggs left! It was very odd having an egg for breakfast on Saturday. Both L D and I felt that we shouldn’t be eating the eggs of our dearly departed feathery friends. How ridiculous is that? But there you go. We’re only stupid humans.

Some friends of ours have just decided to get some chickens and in fact we saw then yesterday on their way to the chicken man as we were leaving with our hens. We told them what had happened and we learned this morning that they have put an extra bolt on the door of their coop. So I think I had better do the same.

As Oscar Wilde once wrote, ‘To lose one parent (set of chickens) may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both (two sets) looks like carelessness.’

Sorry Oscar, I’ve taken a bit of a liberty on this one.

As usual, I’ll keep you all updated.

Ciao, mantenere la fede