Chicken Welfare

In the past I have kept hens and found them to be bright, active creatures that love to stretch their wings, scratch around for bugs, dust bath etc., in fact all the things wild birds do.

My hens would follow me round as I dug the garden so they could grab the odd worm; if I was sitting in the sun they would sit next to me with their wings stretched out also enjoying the warmth; they would love to go onto their tip toes flapping their wings to have a good stretch and sometimes they would just run round the garden chasing a fly. They were happy hens and showed it by producing lots of lovely eggs.

I was therefore horrified to read on the RSPCA website that Defra is currently considering new EU legislation which would reduce the current space that a chicken raised for meat in this country is allowed. When you consider the current area allowed in this country is only about the size of an A4 sheet of paper you can see why I am upset by this.

We wouldn't allow wild birds like Blackbirds, Bluetits or Robins (or any wild animal) to be confined in an equivalent small space but hens are really no different to wild birds. Their natural instinct along with every other living thing is to move. Sometimes I am ashamed to be human.

If you feel like I do please take a minute to go to the RSPCA's website http://www.rspca.org.uk/ and join their campaign 'Quash the Squash'.

Lucky Escape

Poor sad and lonely male pheasant had a very narrow escape last night. I was watching him busily grubbing around the base of the cob nut tree when I noticed a movement the other side of the sheep netting and there was the young fox just making his way into the garden. I was in a bit of a predicament as the pheasant was between me and the fox so if I made too much of a sudden movement it would chase him right into the waiting jaws of the fox. Luckily the fox caught sight of me at the window and ran out of the garden so male phes lives for another day but was this what happened to the female phes I wonder.

Later that evening the same young fox was sitting in the field staring at something near the woods so I got my binoculars to see what it was and there ambling along was a vixen with cub trotting behind. Maybe the young fox was her cub from last year.

We kept hens for about 10 years or so and in all that time only two were caught by foxes. One was lost in a daylight raid and the other was caught at night the one and only time in the whole 10 years I forgot to shut the hen house door. Luckily the dog barked and woke us up and we all ran down the garden screaming (don't know what the neighbours thought!) but the fox took fright, dropped the hen and turned tail out of the garden. After a clever bit of stitch work by the vet and a months recuperation in my daughters bedroom, henny, thankfully was as good as new.

I still like foxes though and think that not enough is said about their uses in the countryside. Some years ago when the farmer first started with sheep he killed of all the local foxes. This caused an explosion of rabbits in his wheat fields (there were literally hundreds) and an explosion in rats and mice. Needless to say the farmer has never totally wiped out the fox population again.