A fowl story
Another good thing is that the collared dove which has been
sitting around on its own all winter has paired up and suddenly two young doves
have appeared. They must have built a nest in February and laid their two white
eggs sitting on them for two weeks. How did they manage to look after their two
nestlings in all that snow? I do not know but here are two young doves, without
their parents’ collars yet, sitting begging for food on our patio – alive and
well.
Talking of strange things that I have seen this week something
unusual happened when I was driving through a small country town. We saw two
people chasing a guinea fowl down the street. I knew it was a guinea fowl by
its spotty body, its thin neck and small head. The bird was running ahead of
them dodging pedestrians and flapping its wings.
At the post office it decided to cross the road and it
somehow managed to weave in and out of the traffic followed by a woman with a
sheet and a man racing after with a cardboard box. Presumably it had escaped
and it was going to be their dinner. Maybe they hoped to recapture it. I did
not think that they would have a chance.
Once when we went away a young friend offered to feed our
hens, let them out in the morning and shut them up at night. All went well
until the first night. We had asked if she would lock them up after dusk but
thinking she could get the job done early she went in the daylight and tried to
chase them into the hut. They were having none of it and even when she enlisted
her mum and dad the hens squawked and scattered. Poultry cannot be driven easily;
it is better to wait and watch then persuade them gently to do what you want.
I do not know if the guinea fowl was caught but my friend
did not succeed with our hens even after an hour of trying. She declined to
offer to help another time.
(Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)
Getting poultry to do what you want is not easy!
.HEIC)
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