I shouldn't joke, our poor little chicken LaVerne is very broody at the moment and her hormones are getting the better of her. We've been keeping chickens for 10 years now but we've never experienced the weird behaviour our LaVerne is currently displaying.
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| "Having a Greta Garbo moment "I want to be alone" |
She's always been a bit different from the rest. The day she arrived we found her on the roof of the hen house and ever since then she's been a huge source of amusement and very friendly. However, since the hormones kicked in the other chickens have been picking on her. They do say that girls can be cruel and there is always the pecking order to consider!
Consequently LaVerne's been in a foul temper (or should that be a fowl temper... sorry sorry sorry!) and has been staging vicious and unprovoked attacks on the dogs!
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| Would you mess with this puffed up chicken? |
It was funny at first. How we laughed when LaVerne pecked our rather nervous beagle Oscar on the bum a couple of times as he hurriedly rushed past her to get in the back door but a few days ago the laughing stopped.
Poor Jake, our lovely pointer mix, was in the back garden sniffing around and minding his own business when a bundle of puffed up red feathers literally flew at him beak first. Being a sweetie pie he just stood there looking bemused but after several attacks of this nature we quickly ushered the dogs into the house. Our Jakie has the most gentle temperament but there are limits even to his patience.
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| The boys enjoying the back garden in times of peace |
Luckily LaVerne has decided that us humans are not her enemy and we are able to collect the other girls' eggs without any problems but in turn leaving her rather bereft. So my next mission was to find a substitute egg to keep her contented. I know some people just mark an egg and leave it with the chicken but I was worried that it might get broken leaving behind a rotten egg smell and inevitable mess.
So when we were shopping at a local brocante market in St. Julien de l'Escap last Sunday I was delighted to find a man with a selection of marble eggs to choose from. I've never bought a gift for a chicken before but after much deliberation I picked out a lovely teal coloured egg. LaVerne loves it! It's quite big for a chicken egg but she doesn't seem to mind and when she's finished with it I shall clean it up and display it in the house (until it is needed again!)
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| Not the Fabergé egg I was hoping for but precious to LaVerne |
The other girls are up to their usual high jinks. Patty and Maxene are running around the garden with poor old Millie trying to keep up and yesterday evening they joined us as we watched TV by jumping up on the sitting room window ledge. It wasn't long before Patty started to look shifty with the obvious intention of jumping down into the room so we quickly shooed them away (there are limits even for soppy people like us!)
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| The House - the final frontier - to boldly go where no chicken has gone before |
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| Millie's keeping out of it! |
So the back garden is off limits to the dogs when LaVerne is out but they still have free reign of the front garden. Fortunately for them our psycho chicken is for the best part of the day safely tucked away on her nesting box trying to hatch a big marble egg. So Jake and Oskie are still able to sniff about and bark at passing tractors to their hearts content. Did someone say country life was quiet and relaxing?
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| The boys by the back door (must touch up paintwork!) |
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