Inside the chicken coop: Never forget where you're coming from

Friday, 17 August 2012

Never forget where you're coming from

I have been having a good delve into my family ancestry just lately and it looks like Blodwyn has been doing the same! I have blogged previously about my old girls Blodwyn and Bethan and their similarity to dinosaurs and now even my little ex battery hens are showing signs of their ancestry too.

It's amazing how different an individual breed can be. Blodywn and Bethan, the two old girls are huge hens, they are not fast but they are very feisty. They stalk around the garden in a very relaxed manner but seem to have no fear of anything, even my rumbling old petrol mower doesn't scare them and the neighbour's cats appear to be terrified of them. They always give them a very wide berth if passing them in the garden. I do wonder if they are giving off some sort of signal to say ' I was once a Tyranosaurus Rex, don't mess with me!'

My latest arrivals, Faith, Hope and Charity, the little ex battery hens are very different. They are small and still have very few feathers. They are fast and agile and take every opportunity to use their small frame to chase prey. They really remind me of the little 'Turky sized' Compsognathus, one of the smaller dinosaurs that were mini bipedal carnivores. These tiny hens will chase even the most harmless butterfly to the death and any slugs and worms in the garden are history once they dig them out with their sharp claws and powerful beaks.

There has been a lot of research around this subject and I am convinced that our feathered friends are almost definitely a link back to their pre-historic relatives. I shall always have to be on my guard when I am inside or out of the chicken coop!

Click here to find out a bit more

2 comments:

Denise21 August 2012 at 10:25
I am convinced that hens are, in fact, beneath all the feathers, velociraptors! Definitely from the land that time forgot.
We are right never to turn our backs!

Hope you are well x
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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.