April Fools
Jack’s day is interrupted when there is a crisis. This is no April Fool’s joke – there is a chicken on the loose and Jack must quickly organise a search party.
Lockdown Chickens
There were confirmed cases of Avian Flu in Newtown and Welshpool during the last couple of months, so our poor hens are still in lockdown, like the rest of the chickens in Wales. We all feel sorry for them because we know what lockdowns are like after the past two years. I just tell them that they are lucky they don’t have to be home schooled as well. Chickens have it pretty easy, if you think about it. They get all the best scraps, plenty of layers pellets and fresh water and the whole day to themselves, to have a scratch about, or take a little walk around the pen, or they can just have a sit down and fluff their feathers. That’s the way I see it.
Sal loves the hens. She has whole conversations with them (though she does all the talking). She has named them all – Dotty, Spotty, Clucky, Plucky and Potato. Don’t ask me why she named a hen Potato. I’m not even sure that she knows the answer to that. There are a few other hens too. They are rescue hens from a local chicken shed (there are quite a few large chicken sheds in our area). We took them from the sick bay and nursed them back to health. They have returned the favour by laying for us. Sal sells some of the eggs in an honesty box at the end of the lane and she makes some pretty good pocket money doing it. I tell Dad he should charge her for the layers pellets but he doesn’t. She gets to keep the money but has to save half. The rest is spent on girls’ stuff that is mostly pink.
Prognosis
I was just about to go out with Meg, to check the ewes and twins in Top Field (as we do every morning during the Easter holidays) when I spotted a problem. The chicken pen was empty and the door to the coop was open. The hens were gone. Momentarily. Spotty was quickly spotted in the wood shed with Plucky and Clucky. I shouted Mum, who brought Sal and Tommy with her. Between us, we found another two hens in the field by the house and began to try to round them up to get them back in the coop.
I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to catch a chicken. They are surprisingly quick and they dart away from you when you don’t expect it. We ended up doing a sort of odd chicken dance with them to try to get them back in. When the door to the coop was shut, we turned to face Sal, who didn’t take long to confess. She didn’t like the idea of the chickens being shut inside so much and opened their doorway to freedom. Mum was cross but she promised not to tell Dad. It seemed settled until we realised that Potato was still missing.
Keep Calm and Catch a Chicken
Can you imagine how daft we must have looked, walking down our lane shouting for a chicken named Potato? She had moved pretty quickly because she was nowhere to be seen in the area around the coops. Tommy got very excited and thought it was a fun game. Mum could think of plenty of other jobs she should be doing and didn’t really have time for chasing hens. Sal was nearly close to tears when Mum said we might have to give up and let her come back on her own later. Sal immediately started worrying about the safety of her beloved Potato and the tears fell. That’s when we heard Dad shouting, “Sal! Why is there a chicken in the cow shed?” Dad arrived at the cow shed door, a chicken under one arm and a warm egg in his hand. She had decided to lay on the round bale of hay in the feeder. There was relief all round. That was the end of the chicken crisis and Sal promised not to let them out again until the rules changed.
Jack – Farmer in Training
Jack was born to farm. He just loves helping out his dad, and his trusty dog Meg is never far away. Farming is in his blood and bones. He has his own small flock of sheep, a few hens and some calves. He has great plans to expand his own enterprise (though Dad says he has to learn to walk before he can learn to run). He may be little but his ambitions are huge.
