Flying the coop

As top dog on the site, I go up to the chicken run at least twice a day to see what’s what behind the wire and I knew something was wrong straight away. There was Lucky the hen lying on the ground as if she had fallen over in her sleep.

I hadn’t known Lucky for long but I do know she had had quite an eventful life from the moment she arrived in a cardboard chicken carrier on a sunny Mothering Sunday several years ago. A nervy little thing, she was spooked by the bossy old birds already there and flew over the high fence and into a neighbour’s tree. So chickens can fly! Who knew?

There was a great palaver recapturing her, which involved lots of the neighbours looking out for her with all sorts of worries about her being caught by dogs, cats or even a fox. Happily, tired and no doubt hungry, she turned up in a garden in a neighbouring street that same evening and was successfully brought home.

Then two years ago, Lucky – named for her lucky escape on that first fateful day – made a momentous trip in a big cage with her sisters on the back seat of an open-top sports car down the long road to Cornwall to start a new life on the estate here. I’ve heard the sight ruffled the feathers of a few drivers on the M5 that day!

Like me, Lucky had a good life here so although we are all very sad she has flown off to the big hen house in the sky, we must remember she had the best life roaming around the coop, scratching, pecking, having dust baths and laying eggs in the fresh Cornish air.

Now, as you know, I’m just a simple Springer Spaniel, but I’m guessing there will be some new chickens taking roost here fairly soon for me to keep an eye on.