The short but sweet life of well-loved chickens

We have become rather well-known in the neighborhood for having chickens roaming freely about the garden. Not just any old chickens, these are exotic bantums - Black Japanese Silkies, distinguished by fluffy "fur" rather than feathers, and a Polish Hen, with a magnificent plume on her head. These chickens were a gift from Eddie, Emma watched them hatch, and they have been truly hand-reared and loved ever since. Here below, is Lucy, bestowing affection on one of the chicks in its younger days. Harrison initially showed a mixture of fascination and fear of these chickens. He wanted to touch them and yet always seemed to end up kicking them - quite deliberately too.

Gradually over time, with gentle guidance from his big sister, Harrison became more loving toward the chickens and pretty soon, they were both able to catch these surprisingly fast-moving chickens pretty much whenever they felt like it. Much to the fascination of our neighbors, the chickens became quite tame - except for the rooster, whose refusal to be caught and placed in the safety of his cage led to an early demise. Although Eddie was very proud of this rooster because he was a "frizzle", we found him to be a little scrawny and bad-tempered. My father noted that he crowed at 11 minute intervals from 5:30am. All in all, we did not begrudge the resident fox his supper that night.
Emma has always loved animals - rabbits, hamsters, doves, horses, peacocks and um, unicorns. She handles these creatures with confidence and that is beginning to rub off on Harrison, who can regularly be found wandering around the garden clutching a chicken.
Here is Harrison proudly showing off his favorite chicken to Lydia, visiting from England for a few weeks.Here is Taylor, who has known Emma since pre-school class together and is our neighbor ... sometimes she feels like our third child! The chickens provided endless entertainment in the garden for them.

Alas, this story does not have a very happy ending. Currently the fox is scoring 3 out of 4. Usually the chickens are put to bed safely in their cage but a sudden violent storm scared them off somewhere last week and the next morning there was just one left. Our family is quite used to adversity when it comes to pets ... Mary coped well with the eulogy of "Whiskers" the wiley hamster on her first visit to Wilmington, however, the loss of these special chickens is sad and we hope to replace them soon. Apart from keeping the children entertained, we were hoping for a steady source of free-range organic eggs.