The chickens have escaped!

I have four chickens – two young girls, one much older girl who we call ‘big mama’, and a young cockerel. We bought the cockerel last October, and for almost four months I was convinced that he was not only gay, but also incapable of crowing. Then, one joyous day in January, I heard him crowing for the first time. A few days later I saw him ‘jumping’ on one of the girls, and everyone could tell that he was generally strutting his stuff and asserting himself over the others. What joy, my boy has grown up!

The chickens have so far been living in an enclosure which is fenced with old pallets. Why? Because I don’t even have two euros to rub together, and fencing is an impossible dream until a cheque of some kind hits my bank account. So, as a self-sufficient gardener I hit on the only fencing option available for free – pallets. The small snag is that the chickens can easily fly over it and the frequent winter storms we’ve been having have damaged it to such and extent that, one day last week, it completely collapsed. So I have now accepted the reality and the undeniable truth that the reason every farmer in the land uses fencing instead of pallets is because … it works.

The chickens are at large. They are delighting in ripping up every square inch of my carefully laid sheet mulching (explanation coming soon) and could put the whole smallholding idea in jeopardy if they’re not contained soon.