What a fabulous day..
I took a walk at lunchtime because the sunshine was just too good to pass up. We’re lucky enough to be based in a business park with a great location, right beside the sea. The park has small lakes, cute bridges and lots of places to switch off from technology. Taking a stroll along the sea front is very relaxing. Sitting down and watching the world go by until the guys on their scooter/motherbike interrupts the blissful silence. Near the aqua centre is a large field and dirt track and it attracts a few of the locals who chase each other up and down the path. The silence is torn apart by what I can only describe as a bumble bee with a bad cold. If you can envision such a thing. That said I wonder if a bumble bee gets a cold, would you see them blowing their nose or would they bother with such small trivial things. I’ve never see a bee with a packet of Kleenax so I can’t comment. With the sound of that drumming in my ears, I walked further on to one of the little lakes and sat for a while. A few people were fascinated by one of the wild ducks standing on one leg with their head tucked under their wings. Growing up with Mam’s menagarie of various birds and animals of all kinds, I don’t get as easily surprised. I was amazed when Mammy2 told me the nearest they got the hens and calves etc was at the zoo. I guess when you come from a rural background there are some things you take for granted.
We had lots of ducks and hens and then of course chickens and ducklings. I remember one time , Mam really wanted the hens to hatch but they were having none of it. They were still enjoying their single and chickenless life, too busy out partying , hoping the local cockrel would notice them. That sort of thing. So when one of the hens took to the sister’s wardrobe and had that I want to be a parent look about them, Mam told us to leave them. Suddenly she had fired some eggs under her before we could say “Share a room with a hen?” So we shared our room with a hen for the next 3 weeks. When they are hatching they are very choosy about the times they have to leave the eggs. They usually leave for a few mins, run out into the yard like a hen possessed and eat as much as they can before they leg it back to the eggs. Its during
this time you can check out the eggs and see if there’s anything growing. Its strange to feel the little beak tapping when its gets near hatching time.
We couldn’t have the music on loud as the hen would clucking. It seems loud noises like thunder can kill the chicks in the eggs. So when hatching time came, out she stepped from the wardrobe with 6 new chicks. They are so cute when they are born. Really really yellow. She was very proud of her new babies. We were relieved to get our wardrobe back. They are even funnier when you hatch out something different such as ducks. One hen went mad when she waltzed from the nesting house with her new ‘chick’s and they went straight into the pond. She thought they were going to drown so she ran in circles around the pond clucking away at them. To no avail. She might have had better luck throwing in a life preserver or a polo mint. Sometimes I miss living in the country. We didn’t have a farm with Mam, but the garden was big enough to allow for 5 or 6 ducks, 14-15 hens and a few donkeys. It was a big garden.
