Hello and how are you? Did you have a good Christmas? We did. Or at least, most of us did. The chickens had a pretty boring time.

In case you haven’t heard, DEFRA (the animal law people) said that all poultry has to be caged for a month from 7th December. This is because bird flu was in Europe (though not, at that time, in the UK.) This applied to all poultry, even those kept in a garden. The idea being, that if they had no contact with wild birds, the virus wouldn’t spread.

I duly kept chickens in their cage. They were very unhappy about this, and whenever I went to feed them, they tried to force their way out. So I decided to give them some entertainment. The DEFRA website had recommended that you hang a cabbage in the cage, because bored chickens will peck each other (nasty birds.) I bought a cabbage.

Son and I then spent some time trying to make a hole through cabbage (husband was very unkeen for me to use his drill, I don’t know why.) We then spent even longer trying to thread a piece of string through the hole. Never mind the chickens, this was turning into quite an activity for son. We tied a lump of wood on the end, so the string stayed in place, and I hung it in the chicken cage.

Now, what height would you have hung the cabbage? I decided that head height was about right. I’m not sure it worked exactly as the DEFRA advisor had anticipated. The chickens were certainly interested in the cabbage, and rushed to eat it as soon as they saw it. The problem was, they launched at it with a big peck. The cabbage swung away from them, then swung back, like a big green bowling ball. Chickens are not good at dodging. They were somewhat dazed.

The next time I went to check on them, the cabbage was hanging in the corner, and the chickens were all giving it wary looks. I guess it had given them something to think about, and I don’t think any of them were actually knocked out, but it wasn’t what I was expecting.

Hope the rest of your Christmas is full of nice surprises.

Take care,
Love, Anne

Oh yes, nearly forgot – I have written a short story for you. I’ll post it tomorrow, in the ‘Story’ section. I expect you’re very busy this week, so it’s something fun and thoughtful for you to read when you have a coffee break. Hope you like it.

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