Moving On

Can I take this opportunity to apologise for the miseryfest this blog has become over the last few posts? It has been a very bleak time indeed. This time last week I had 12 birds, and now I'm down to 8. Losing Hoppy and then Doris has been a massive blow. Hoppy more than likely had a genetic issue, and Doris either had egg peritonitis or a liver tumour. Either way, there was no fixing her. She will be missed, but I take comfort from the fact that she had three good years with us, and ate a hell of a lot of treats. She also shrieked her distinctive baby seagull song loud and long. The entire neighbourhood knew about Doris.

As I had to broody cage Gladys again yesterday (that hen is sneaky), my garden seemed quite empty. Mabel, Maude, Maeve, Celia and Hilda mooches about under the trampoline, hoovering up biscuit crumbs. Betsy and Vera, now firm friends again, dust bathed in my bedding plants while making occasional forays in to the palace to scoff pellets. And I missed my larger flock.

It was perhaps inevitable that I would start emailing breeders. and perhaps more inevitable that one would mail me back with a dizzying array of baby pekins needing new homes, from just about every point in the colour spectrum. The fact that this breeder is 50 miles away is a slight problem.

I'm making the ever tolerant husband his favourite dinner tonight.