David Attenborough eat your heart out

I have spent the day in the field today, and have enjoyed strimming the weeds and nettles down with Andrew's industrial sized strimmer. The allotment looks neat and tidy, and I was surprised to notice that two water butts have appeared by my compost bins. Which I thought was a nice gesture and I am very grateful for. The work was hot and messy, so I spent lunch time in the chicken coop watching the girls and their behaviour, which might sound a little geeky but is in fact quite fascinating.

Raquel Welsh (above) is perhaps the prettiest of the hens and like an attractive teenager, she is picked on by her less attractive peers. She is also one of the bravest of the birds and actually took a little bit of apple from my hand.

Whoopie Goldberg is the unhappiest looking hen, and looks rather bad tempered all of the time. As I lay on the grass she started the "let's jump of the chicken coop game", which I have noticed occurs on a daily basis. What happens is that one bird gets all excited and flighty and starts flapping her wings. She then half flaps and half jumps onto the coop roof where she looks down upon the twelve others triumphantly. The others then crowd around in circle, jumping up and down with glee and envy! one after another the girls then try to take over from the roof perching hen, often bouncing her off roughly, like a scene from It's a knockout!

Robina is still the top chicken and is quite ruthless in her domination of the others. Her second in command varies but two of the white comets (The Andrews sisters) seem to be in the running. I have found it all rather interesting.