Monday, April 21, 2008

The Refuge That I Run

Nellybert has a new venture on the go. We’re now providers of hostel accommodation for hens suffering domestic abuse. Six new hens arrived at the weekend and the hen house has become a refuge for battered chickens.

A while back Clint went to England and purchased a number of fertilised eggs from specialist chicken breeders. These included Barnevelders, Lakenvelders, Cream Legbars and Buff Suffolks. With eggs you cannot be certain to the sex of the chicken and, as is usual, Clint’s eggs hatched out roughly half roosters and half hens.

Roosters are mad about sex and would be at the hens constantly. There was one particularly popular unfortunate Cream Legbar that had them queuing up and as one randy rooster jumped off another one jumped on. Her poor back was in juggins and as Clint put it,

Those roosters have her treaded within an inch of her life.

Thankfully I’ve a lot of experience working in hostels so Clint’s chickens are in safe hands until he gets his own coop in order. It’s just like any other hostel really. There are cliques, there are arguments, they steal each other’s food and there’s always one that the rest pick on. And, like any other women's hostel, there are the inevitable disreputable looking males* hanging about outside trying to gain entrance.







*The One That Everybody Hates & The Other One


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could do with some of them there Roosters! ;)

How does it feel to have an internationally published mother?

Nelly said...

You could always ask Elly ;)

We are proud of her.

El Capitan said...

Not being a chicken breeder, I'm completely clueless about how to pry the roosters off the hens.

I'm guessing there's not some sort of diaper you can wrap the hen up in? Or maybe wind a few lengths of gaffer tape around the rooster's pelvis? Perhaps some little tiny leg irons attached to a brick?

This is all so fascinating...

Nelly said...

El Capitan - chickens need to get their eggs laid so cannot wear chastity belts. It's not the excessive treading that's hard on them as the weight of the rooster hanging on to their backs with his big spiky feet.

Clint got saddles for his female turkeys to protect them from the amorous advances of Big Ernie.

See him in action here

http://snarlylegend.blogspot.com/2007/07/big-ernie-rides-again.html

Hope you don't find Clint's Norn Iron accent too incomprehensible.