Sad news, our new cockerell was found dead by Neil in the hen house this morning. It's all very mysterious - he was only 5 months old and there was no sign of attack or abuse. His name was Denis (after our friend who had given him to us)and he was very fine. I was getting quite excited about what beautiful chicks we would have.
Neil is getting quite excited about eating some of the last batch of chicks. They must be about 5 months old now. I'm not sure if it is due to their brahma heritage, as Brahmas are a very different shape to our normal bog standard chickens, but I am finding it very difficult to make out which are hens and which are cocks.
There has been a bit of disagreement in the ranks of late, it hasn't got to the full blood shed of adult cock fighting, more handbags at dawn and over very quickly. So if I actually was able to spend some time watching them I would soon work out who's who.
The cocks will have to go in the pot and although inbreeding isn't something which goes completely against the grain for the locals in these parts - I would prefer to get another cockerell that isn't related to this bunch for this year.
So we are on the hunt for another cockerell...I hope the next one lasts more than 3 days.
Oh dear, it was a sad event and I was with you at first, then started laughing by the end. And I needed a light moment, so thankyou for giving me a lift.
ReplyDelete