Hello!

Long time no see! Of course I had to come back with a hen photo! We sadly lost 6 hens in the summer as a coop member forgot to open them - by the time he remembered 6 had died. I still can't bear to think of how they must have suffered. With Avian Bird Flu going around once more we bought ( I bought!) an additional covered run for the girls - Omlet makes such good coops and runs! We put this up last weekend and today I went to get the new girls - two Black Copper Marans which lay very dark red/brown eggs! How exciting!
I put the new girls in the run to acclimatise them - lots of interest from the other hens!  I had fenced off the brambles under which the hens like to shelter - didn't want the new girls going in there at bedtime! Nightmare to try and get them out! As the other hens had lost interest in the new arrivals I let them out. The Speckled Marans decided to show them they were the boss. Well that didn't turn out as they expected!  After a bit of staring and posturing they went for the Maran I have for the time being called Constance. Well Constance is a feisty girl and there was no doubt who now rules the roost! I have called the other copper Mildred as she is looking a bit scruffy as she has begun to moult!The two little bantams sensibly stayed away from all this!
 I must have been on the plot for about 3 hours - Brummie Girl arrived to tend to her plot and as I haven't seen her in months we had a good old chat. All the hens were happily eating and drinking so I finally returned home to Oscar who was most pleased to see me arrive home! 
I posted to the Chicken Coop photos of the new girls and asked for suggestions for names. The son of one member who loves the hens came up with 2 great names - Fiscal and Crisis, Liz and Beth after our late queen. He is only 12! 
If you want to see more of the hens here is a link!
Nearly forgot  to mention that the village where I bought the hens which is further up the Tamar river, was over run with people with cameras and tripods! Apparently a rare bird not seen in the Uk for a long time  has been in the village the last 2 weeks and the twitchers have been out in force! I actually saw the bird as I drove slowly through them - looked like a big Blue Jay! Apparently it was a European Roller!
I shall catch up with the salient bits of news about my Blip MIA in another post - yes I intend to carry on blipping!!! I will gradually catch up on events in your lives too!