Inside the chicken coop: February 2009

Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Battery Hen Welfare Trust

It just goes to show what happens when you give a hen the free range - they end up taking over my blog! I am sure they will make another appearance in the future as they are always clucking over something and like to share their opinions.

Exciting news with 'One Hundred Ways for a Chicken to Train its Human'. In January this year the Battery Hen Welfare Trust contacted me. They have included my book in their supporter packs.

They are a wonderful charity and work so hard to getting a better future for the millions of battery hens. They run a brilliant adoption scheme and so far have re-homed 123,550 hens into new and loving homes. Their website is great and well worth looking at, especially if you are thinking of keeping a few hens. http://www.bhwt.org.uk/

I will certainly be supporting them in the future, I love the idea of giving an ex battery hen a home, but have to be careful with my existing clan. Hens can be aggressive with new stock so I will have to introduce them gradually. In the meantime I shall be preparing a separate run so they will be able to see each other through the fence and get aquainted. Fingers crossed there will not be any 'fowl play'.

Di

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

The Snow hen

What's all this white stuff in our coop? My feet are cold. She obviously didn't put enough bedding down for us last night.

Don't know, but at least it hasn't

got to our breakfast.

Hello, who are you? Is that one of my tail feathers? Mmm that carrot looks tasty.

Although, I think there is something more interesting just here.

We're off, there's too much snow around here.

Hmph who ruffled their feathers? Such light weights, a bit of cold weather and they can't cope. Never mind with more snow forecast, this time tomorrow I'll be twice the size I am today! I'll show them who rules the roost then.

Inside (and out) of the chicken coop

Hello and welcome to my blog. I hope you have fun viewing some of the photos and stories, a lot of them are aimed at the younger generation, but hope will appeal to anyone who loves keeping chickens as pets. I have been keeping chickens for several years now, they really inspire my writing as they are very comical. My original hens inspired me to write my book 'One Hundred Ways For A Chicken To Train Its Human' which was published by Hodder and Stoughton in March 2007. Now this little clan keep me blogging about them.

Apart from my hens, I do write other stuff too, I am trying to get my Novel - Red Kite, Published but it's so difficult without an agent, and trying to find an agent is equally as hard. However I shall not give up - that's the one thing I am certain of. In the meantime I am writing freelance magazine articles and children's stories.

Gentlemen of the River - Phyllis Blakemore

I am very proud to announce that my Mother has just had her book published. ' Gentlemen of the River - The last Coracle men of the Severn Gorge' is a lovely book about the lives of the coracle men who spent most of their lives around the River Severn in Ironbridge. It spans the generations of the Rogers family who had a long history of coracle making. My Mom knew Eusty very well as she grew up in Ironbridge. He was the very last of the coracle men of that time. I lived there for some time too and he was a wonderful character. It was very sad when he died on January 31 2003 as a lot of skill and a huge amount of memories went with him.

The photographs show a glimpse of what life was like in Ironbridge before it was a major tourist attraction and helps to tell the story of an ancient craft which is still going strong with the modern day coracle makers of today.

It is published by Stenlake Publishing Ltd and priced at a very reasonable £7.99.

Barmouth 2009

We recently took my Mom to Barmouth for a weekend break and had hours of fun on the beach by drawing animals in the sand. We had limited time to create our sand art, as the sea was fast on our heels. My Mom really surprised me when she drew a perfect Micky Mouse, which I feel was good enough for any comic of today. Our chickens were not so good, and they were soon to be washed away by the tide, but the memories of that time on a deserted beach as three adults being children again will remain as a lovely end to the summer of 2009.