Thursday 18 March 2010

An unexpected guest

Well, what an exciting day! This morning while making the kids sandwiches I heard a cock-a-doodle-dooing very close by... went out into the gardeen to investigate & it really did sound VERY closeby. I peered over the back fence & there he was in the woods. So I grabed a fistfull of wild birdseed and went out, started throwing it nearby & bless him; he started gobbling it up, came right over to me pecking around by my feet. So I picked him up and brought him in :o)

We have a very big unused guinea pig cage in the garage where he can spend the night, but I popped him into the guinea pig run on the grass for the day... not ideal, but the dogs are just getting used to him - and I dont really want him to hop over the fence back into the woods to get gobbled up by foxey-loxey.
Spent the morning visiting our local farms trying to find his home, but the closest one doesnt keep chickens at all - and the other one (which is a gorgeous idylic place) have had all their chickens taken by foxes a couple of weeks ago. I did wonder if maybe he was one of theirs who had escaped the fox & been living wild - but theyve never had one like him. I think he is a bantam... but not really sure. The nice farm have said they will happily have him if we dont find his home & are unable to keep him (?just how much will this cock crow?!) but we agreed it`ll be best to give it a few weeks anyway so the foxes have stopped looking for chickens there. The farmer & his wife are busy lambing & calfing at the moment, but plan to buy some chickens in a month or 2, so he can always go & live there with a little harem... theyre free rangers, so I think that would be nice for him.
So, there you go, another string to my bow - chicken wrangler :o) I hadn`t held a chicken since I was about 10...glad I used to help my aunty with hers when I was a little un so I at least knew how to pick him up.
As long as he is here he will need a name, so far we`ve considered Doodle (cos he `doodledoo` s) or Rocky after the one on Chicken Run... I think he will probably be Rocky :o)

1 comment:

Felted House said...

He's very handsome isn't he - I like the name Rocky too. My friend Tammy has recently had two hens that keep visiting her too, but she found their home which was next door! Hope he doesn't keep wake you up too early. xx