The weather has brought out the village children who visit the field often with bags of cheap white bread clutched in their fists. They call around to the cottage to pick up tin bowls and then will eagerly scurry around the coops collecting eggs and the odd tame hen which is usually carried around like a handbag.
In this awful climate of health and safety...I always remind them loudly (in front of parents) to wash their hands when they get home!
I had forgotten it is Good Friday......so best laid plans had to be put on hold as Chris has a day off at home.
I took him to Church service in Dyserth this morning before popping down to Rhyl on a bit of a mercy dash.
Earlier I took a phone call from a nice couple who were distraught with their neighbour's threats to report them to the local council. The couple has five ornamental orpingtons which after laying the occasional egg , cluck a little too loudly for the neighbours to cope with, and so after a bit of a war of words, the couple had been presented with the fact that in the small print of their deeds there was a covenant forbidding the keeping of hens.
I called around to find the couple upset and very tearful. The hens' run was beautifully clean and well looked after and the quiet birds ( yes they were beautifully quiet) looked bright and very healthy to me, but of course the couple had to get rid of them......they had no other choice.............so of course I agreed to take them.
One by one I loaded the fat girls into the back of the berlingo as the wife sobbed into her hankie, and all I could do to help her was to promise to save their eggs for the family to use personally.
It was such a shame that two enthusiastic and caring people should be stripped of a pastime they had grown to love so much......and by a hatchet faced neighbour who couldn't quite cope with the odd cluck of a hen!
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| The new girls |
I just do not understand some people. I love the sound of the hens singing and clucking away. They ask so little and appreciate so much. What's your count up to now?
ReplyDeleteWe have lived in town with close neighbors and I can promise you those hens couldn't hold a candle to the "other" noise pollution you get living in a neighborhood... For petes sake. Hens don't make that much noise and when they do its over so fast its hardly enough to bother anyone.. I am sorry the people had to give up their hens.. They are really pretty!
ReplyDeleteI've never lived next to clucking hens, but what I have heard out of the ones I've 'visited', I don't think it could be THAT bad. I do hear the occasional rooster from across my back farmfield, but even that isn't irritating.
ReplyDeleteSome people need a hobby. That neighbour is obviously a very angry person inside to do that to people who obviously love their past-time. Thank goodness you came to the rescue and can keep the original owners up to date with their progress. Good luck to them and if you can catch them give them a hug for me. (the chickens not the neighbours)
ReplyDeleteSorry, that they had to give up their hens! Glad that you got them! It could have been a deeper problem than the hens, some neighbors can be pretty vindictive.
ReplyDeleteVery pretty gals!
I rather like the chunter of hens. Our old neighbour used to keep ducks and I never failed to smile when I heard them in the rain going ha ha ha!
ReplyDeleteThe 4.30am cockrell was another matter :-O
when I read about things like this it reminds me why I live bang smack in the middle of a field!
ReplyDeleteThe worst our neighbours do is jump into the garden and eat the tips off the roses!
I particularly loved your description of carrying a hen around like a handbag, because for some reason they do coopie into a handbag-holding position don't they
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Our cat wakes us up at 4am every morning.i can understand if someone does not enjoy the sound of hens not everyone wants to be living next door to them I myself would love all my neighbours to have chickens or live next door to you Chicken John.
ReplyDeleteThey are big girls aren't they? They look very healthy. I'm pleased that they found a great home with you and that I'm sure will offer the couple some comfort.
ReplyDeleteWe had a famous case here of two 'newcomer' Parisian antique dealers who complained about a cockerel. They actually won their case and were awarded 1 Franc in damages (this was some time back). The village then put on a huge celebration of all things bucolic (it was on French TV); no-one has spoken to the two men since. How stupid can people be!!!
ReplyDeleteI love those fat bottom girls!
ReplyDeleteYour Friend, m.
Why can't the grumpy people have their own neighborhoods where no one is allowed to keep pets, play music, or laugh? Why do they always insist on living with other people, and then demanding that those people and their activities stay out of sight? It makes me wonder how people manage in countries where living conditions are really crowded. We're having more trouble in our area because the new houses are being built so close together your neighbor could hear your pet hamster fart. It's not going to get any better. I wouldn't have guessed people in England had the same problems, though. Is that grumpy neighbor an immigrant from some retirement "community" in the U.S.?
ReplyDeleteMaybe a small leak to some local paper would be in order here. Shame on those people for causing that dear couple such heartache.
ReplyDeleteFrom the looks of those hens, they were loved very much.
You are a sweet man to have assured that the couple get the eggs from their beloved girls.
I read elsewhere that a clause in one of the Allotment Acts overrides anti poultry keeping covenants. A recent court case confirmed this and thus there is legal precedent.
ReplyDeleteBit late for these people, but encourage then to hang on the the coop and run for when the nasty neighbours move, or they do.
Anti poultry rules & regs were a worry for us when we moved here. But I called the local council who confirmed none were in place anywhere in the borough. So theoretically you could have them on a tower block balcony in Edmonton as well as in our little leafy enclave. I asked our near neighbours before we got the hens. No negative responses. In fact one of the older residents says she loves hearing them as it makes a change from yappy dogs, noisy cars and screaming kids.
Sometimes, I just don't get people! Well, at least the girls found a good home.
ReplyDeleteTrouble is there are so many angry, dissatisfied and unhappy people at the moment and their only way of getting a bit of pleasure is to off- load their unhappiness onto others.
ReplyDeleteI feel so sad for this couple knowing from years of experience what it's like living next to really horrid neighbours.
Thank goodness for people like you John,
Briony
x
Bless you for being a good samaritan again!
ReplyDeleteYet again I cannot help feeling it is a good job my Buff Orpington cockerel can't work the computer - otherwise he would set off towards your neck of the woods double quick. Those girls look so much more exciting than my lot.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand why people behave like that. I love the contented cluck cluck noises hens make as they go about their business. It's one of the best things about keeping chooks. What awful neighbours. I feel for the couple who had to give up their little flock - maybe they can come to visit? They are very pretty girls.
ReplyDeleteI agree with someone's comment - a small leak to the local rag might be in order.
It's a shame the couple had to give them up, they're lovely looking hens.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at Jan's comment about hamsters!
If they don't have any names yet, I think you should name one of them Beyonce (like the singer).
ReplyDeleteSome people just get jealous of what others have got and envy the fact that they are unable to do likewise - so the whinge.
ReplyDeleteIt was a pity, in many ways, but I s'pose if there is something like a lease clause you cannot beat it!
Karma ........ it always comes around.
ps - Good on you John for taking the chooks. You may get some regular visitors.
Oh! and btw - Our (very) close neighbours have a year old male sheep - named Bruce - who often 'Baaaa's away. The school children are more bother than Bruce 'cos the pull the palings off my neighbours fence to frrd Bruce grass and milkweeds.
ReplyDeletethanks all
ReplyDeleteIris: Beyonce it is!
How about 'J Lo' HAS to be another name!
ReplyDeleteThese gals won't know how lucky they are.
Oh well! I'll put a vote in for a 'Kylie'! LOL!
ReplyDeleteWhat lucky chickies! Seeing the photo I immediately aquired an ear worm, "I love big butts, I cannot lie..."
ReplyDeleteThose neighbors should be ashamed of themselves. Poor owners. Glad the hens got a wonderful new home.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you were able to take these pretty girls in ~ and shame on the nasty neighbour who complained.
ReplyDeleteI live in an urban area and thus far no one has complained about my girls. In fact, everyone comments on how nice it is to hear them as a bit of an antidote against the noise of the traffic :-)
Love the pic of the kids and your description of the cheap White bread - made me chuckle. At least hopefully it gets to appreciate where eggs really come from!
ReplyDeleteHave a great Easter
Jane
Neighbors can be quite uppity can't they? I agree with Texan...the people who live over the fence behind me sometimes play their music so loud the glass in my sliding doors vibrates! Sad people can't live and let live! I would enjoy hearing chickens again!
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