A Ride in the Chickshaw

There are going to be big changes in the coops over the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately, a local resident has been making problems about the cockerels on site. As a result, the Committee have had to ask plot holders with cockerels to remove them. I have three-ish weeks to find homes for Tommy and Gordon. It’s very upsetting as most of the local residents have no problems with them and some say they enjoy hearing sounds of the countryside rather than the endless traffic. I have put Gordon and Tommy up for rehoming and I have had a lady get in touch asking about Gordon. She lives up in the Lake District and wants to try to breed some porcelain millefleurs. Gordon would have three girls to live with for the spring months then spend the rest of the year free ranging with other bantams. Over the next week, we will arrange to meet up to hand him over to his new home. I have a few plans for Tommy but they are in the early stages.

With the boys moving on, the flock dynamic will change significantly. While we still have the boys, who referee wonderfully, I will be playing musical chickens again. Two of Gordon’s girls will be rehomed with Dylan and his family as well as the female Silkie chicks when they are a little older. That just leaves Foxy and the Littlest Bantam in the New Coop. Even when Trixie’s leg is better, the three of them would rattle around the coop. So the only solution was to get hold of a local breeder and see if he had any girls. Happily, he did! I arranged to pick them up today.

I chose three girls. The breeder is trying to develop a new colour of millefleur. He is getting close to the blue-silver colour he is aiming for but the previous generations have a reddish colour in their feathers. I bought a year old pullet with beautiful red colouring and one of her chicks who had just a hint of red in her feathers. He then made a fatal mistake, telling me he had a chocolate pekin pullet with a crooked beak and sent a photo. I had to have her too!

The rain started just as I was about to walk across to pick up the new chickens. Undeterred, I grabbed my bike and secured the pet carrier onto the back of it with several bungees. Quickly, I cycled across and arrived resembling a half drowned rat. He had the girls ready and we put them into the carrier. The ride home was slow as I didn’t want to freak out the chickens any more than they already were! I loved having the chickens on the bike but I think that the chickens might need more persuading! My husband christened my bike with the carrier as the ‘Chickshaw’. I nearly died laughing!

Trixie was less than impressed with her temporary new coop-mates. But she won’t have to cope for long – tomorrow, I’ll move them across to the allotment. I kept popping out to check on them and although Trixie was still grumpy, she was tolerating them. Now to work out what to call them!

The plan for tomorrow is to move the new chickens to the allotment, help Dylan set up his new coop and move more chickens! Let’s just hope it doesn’t pour with rain all day!