Born Free!

Upon the open Savannah and wild dusty plains of Bromsgrove was played out the eternal hunt today, as Charlie and Lola left their enclosure for the first time. A lot of people say that the first time they are let out, their chickens stand, beaks agape, in awe and wonderment at the world outside their pens. Not so Charlie and Lola. They were straight out, found the only three inches in the garden fence without chicken wire and headed off into the sunset of John’s Garden, in a sort of slightly sepia’d, slow motion kind of way. I bet Travers and McKenna never had this problem.

“I know I said I wanted to see your chickens”, said John, “But, I didn’t realise it would be quite so soon, or quite this close!” Luckily, John has a good sense of humour and he took it all in his stride. He did put a plank of wood over the offending three inches very quickly though.

Charlie managed to find a dust bath, though she looked more like a flailing monkey than an elegant debutante, and she learned to swim very quickly when she fell into an old barrel that has been set into the ground. Lola, meanwhile, just pecked about and made sure she looked cool in her new surroundings. Not quite as inquisitive as Charlie, she just munched on daffodils.

Jo decided that the best way to get them back was to tempt them with lovely morsels. Their grub – No! Tasty grapes – No! Alex’s left over Shreddies – The Perfect thing! We’ve discovered that chickens do like Shreddies. They worked a treat and the girls were soon back in their bright orange Eglu. Somehow though, they managed to make it look like it was all their own idea. How do they do that?

So today’s question is: Given the fact that chickens are girls. Does this mean that Alex and I are outnumbered in the house now? And does this mean that all the Starwars stuff and (more importantly) the beer-fridge will have to go?!

This Eden is a beautiful place, let’s keep it that way.

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