Nature's Delight

Sometimes all you can do is marvel at nature's beauty
This morning was a case in point
I stopped for a moment as I was ladling out the corn for the hens ( and the ewes of course,who muscle in on the feed), and in the cold serenity of the frosty dawn I spied a small brightly coloured wild bird darting through the legs of the hysterical runners in order to grab a small meal.
The tiny, delicate bird was beautifully lit by the morning sun,
It was gorgeous and sweet in it's desperate and cheeky effort to keep going in the winter cold
A thing to make the heart soar amid all the horrible things we hear about in this harsh life of ours

And for a second all was right with the world

Then two of the tame red warrens grabbed it and between them PULLED IT'S BLOODY HEAD OFF
Ah..the romance of it all!





60 comments:

  1. You are such a character.

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  2. How sad - nature can be so cruel.
    I used to keep hens and they are so entertaining but are also bloody vicious when it comes to food !

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  3. Oh John, how awful - but how henlike. I long ago ceased to be star struck with my hens - they produce eggs which are delicious and far better than any shop-bought ones - but they can be immensely cruel to one another and to anything else that can't stand up for itself. I have seen them destroy a nest full of baby mice in about two seconds (put me off eggs for a day or two I must say).

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    1. I heard someone describe a ginger bloke's pubic hair as a nest of blind mice pat x

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  4. Oh!! Oh!! I....sorry but I had a small snort at that...I had no idea hens could be such bitches! Which simply proves how much homework I still need to do on them before I get my own. Glad it's not grey and dull over your way. We have sunshine too!
    N
    x

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  5. So true John. Livestock can be like people, cruel and kind. I have seen my cattle push smaller cattle away from their feeding because they are smaller or a different colour. My ducks sometimes peck a smaller ducks feathers out and kill them. It's so sad.

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  6. I thought this blog post had started off to Saccharin-sweet for John Gray. I was right.

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    1. You know me so well
      As Elaine page once said

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  7. They say that chickens are the closest surviving relatives of dinosaurs...

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  8. Your story reminds me when the elementary school class of a friend raised butterflies--Watching and caring for them from the very start of their life, they all went outside to release them and a bird swooped in and ate one. You are right, the romance of it all and I'm glad to be at the top of the food chain!

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  9. so why did they do that? Just for the hell of it, or do they eat them?

    Gill

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  10. A bird in the beak is worth two in the trees!

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  11. Having kept chickens in years past I just knew something "interesting" was going to happen... sure did!

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    1. They can be frightful little buggers

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  12. I once spent weeks raising a bird from hatch...once it was ready I released it... a hawk swooped down and killed it. Ah well, it was free for a few seconds.
    Jane x

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  13. That is truly awful. I never want hens. Do donkeys do the same cruel things or am I safe with dreaming about a donkey sanctuary?

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    1. Donkeys have been known to kick to death passing squirrels

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  14. Holy sh*t John!

    This post was just lovely and peaceful, la dee da da...and then comes a beheading!!! I didn't see that coming!

    LOL

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  15. I don't know anything about keeping hens, but perhaps you are not feeding them enough! xxxxxx

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  16. Ah, the velociraptors are alive and well...just a bit smaller.

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  17. To paraphrase 'The Fast Show' - 'today we is mainly being velociraptors'. no wonder the picture at the top of your blog always looks so bloody scarey to me. just don't fall over John......

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  18. My daughter has just bought a min-farm, complete with miniature donkeys, and laying hens.
    Donkeys to keep the coyotes at bay, and now I know what the hens are for :)
    Poor little bird.
    ~Jo

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  19. Oh my, just like you, I'm a man of honour and yes, lucky you, I am making another of my eagerly anticipated comments.

    This was such a fowl posting and thanks for the head's up or down....

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  20. Oh no! One time I saw a mouse in the chicken run trying to escape. The chickens saw it and that was the end of the poor mouse! They tore it to bits. I was pretty shocked! I've seen them eat little toads before, too. They are definitely omnivorous creatures!

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  21. I didn't see the beheading "plot twist" coming :)

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    1. I like to keep you all on your toes!

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  22. All together now....'Quentin Tarantino had a farm...ee i ee i oh...'

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    1. And the prize for the best comment goes to.........wanda

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  23. one late spring day there were several fledgling sparrows(?) flitting about under a car in the yard. going from the ground to the tire tops. The hens were out pecking gravel and bugs and the next thing ya know "chomp" off runss a hen with a fledging in her mouth and others in hot pursuit. Kind of ruined my peaceful scene as well and left me shaking my head.

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  24. Those hens remind me of some of the women I work with!

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  25. Life is stranger than fiction.

    Have a good day, John!

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  26. This is as bad as the Africa series on telly.
    I watched enthralled as the shoebill bird caught a fish then the smile was wiped from my face as it was seen to neglect its youngest offspring by failing to feed it in favour of the stronger sibling, who attacked the poor little thing when the parent's back was turned.
    Nature is so cruel and it's always the babies or the weak ones that suffer.
    I had to turn it off, having managed to watch about ten minutes. Magnificent though the scenery and camerawork is, I couldn't stand to see the suffering.
    Perhaps its my age.

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  27. Hell, I've seen them canabalize themselves. The Leghorns are the worst. There is usually one that starts the problem and the others join in.

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  28. My chooks like to get a frog's leg each and run in opposite directions. The screams put me right off my breakfast.

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  29. I think I will be off chicken now......they can be real little fu@$ers can't they!

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  30. Chooks look so placid - until you see the carniverous delight with which they hoe into each other. A spot of blood and they are there...

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  31. Oh, you're so bad! Here I was thinking you were being all poetic and appreciative of nature's beauty, and then you went and hit us with a savage snippet from "The Wild Kingdom". (And you really enjoyed doing it, too!)

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  32. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/470227/tuxpi.com.1358141469.jpg

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  33. That really shouldn't have made me laugh....

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  34. I snorted so hard I think I have cleared my sinuses for a month. Think I will re-name ours from MeMa's Ladies to MeMa's Bitches.

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  35. Nature is cruel. But we don't have to be.

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  36. It's all about the pecking order... my hens were hell on anything that came within reach including each other if they were in a mood. Life!

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  37. Okay, I just read that out loud to Gordon and he laughed out loud. Usually he's a silent laugher type, which tells you just how funny that was (but not so funny for the poor little bird!! BLOODY CANNIBALS!)

    You are awesome.

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  38. So sad-didn't see it coming, either. I thought they weren't smart enough to be that mean. Gone forever is my mental image of the "sweet mother hen"...

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  39. ................!!!

    Chicken soup never sounded better for dinner, don't you think......?

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  40. Chickens are mean......mean, mean, mean. And most people don't realize that they aren't really the grain eaters that we try to make them. They are cannibals, love bugs, grubs, worms.....meaty things.
    I once had a pullet that ran under my son's car just as he was leaving, it was low to the ground and when he backed out it rolled the chicken, killing it and gutting it all at the same time. The remaining live free-rangers ran to gobble up the insides of the still flopping chicken like fat people at a banquet. My son was screaming at me, "My God mom, make them stop, make them stop". I couldn't help it, inappropriate laughter was all I could manage. I sometimes react that way.........don't ask me why.

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