Happy Hens , Happy Families

One of the successes of the year was the introduction into our family of Wilma, Pebbles, Xbox and Micro.As you will probably have gathered we each chose a name for our new hens. Wilma was my choice. She is a Black Rock which are supposedly good egg producers and as it turned out she has a disability. She has a turned in foot (we could say pigeon toes if she wasn't a hen ) which forces her to walk (or rather run to me) with an excentuated limp when she thinks food is on the way. Nevertheless it hasn't stopped her of late leading the escape from the chicken run into the field next door where she has merrily pecked away until dusk before scrambling back under the chicken wire to the safety of the coop leaving Pebbles, her more able bodied mate stranded in the field awaiting rescue. I set off down the lane and up the track to the five bar fence and clambered over, straight into a muddy mire as the rain had fallen incessantly for several days. Slithering over the field in the dark I reached the boundary fence between the field an garden to find Pebbles cheekily peering through the fence from the garden side. Once back in the garden I discovered her in the half darkness roosting in a tree! And here was I thinking that at this time of year there were only partridges to be found in pear trees!