Maybe you think you've had a bad day.

Spare a thought for this rooster (his name is Jack). And let me tell you about his day.

First: we keep a few roosters around. All Barred Plymouth Rocks for no reason except they are beautiful and I breed them. There is usually one rooster per chicken caravan and one in with the breeding Pymouths.

Our terrific breeding rooster (Casanova) has been living out with the first chicken caravan for a while and is doing a lovely job looking after the hens so we left him there. Meanwhile ALL my Plymouths are broody but without a rooster or fertilised eggs. There were two roosters in the second chicken caravan and one of them, let's call him Ennis, was near the door yesterday at sundown so Adam grabbed him and kindly relocated him for me to the fixed yard with the breeding hens.  

This morning there was a rooster outside the fixed yard. At first I assumed it was Ennis, exhausted by the crazy breeding hens and trying to escape back to his quiet caravan of love. But no. It was Jack, escaped from the caravan and obviously looking for Ennis. 

Oh the drama.

He wouldn't be caught and we had quiches to bake for the food co-op and raised garden beds to build and pigs to feed and potatoes to dig and a school concert to attend. We left him to it. But then I hear shouting and our dog Holly is slinking into her kennel and Adam is holding Jack under his arm and poor Jack is trying to crow but has apparently lost his voice. Holly, who never ever touches a chicken, had had a good go at Jack, poor rooster, and was lucky Adam was in the vicinity before too much damage was done. We don't think Jack lost his voice in that incident, it sounded like he must have lost it overnight. Calling for Ennis.

Did we reunite them? Well, no. Jack's day did not end as he hoped it would, in a tent on a hill with his beloved. Instead he was returned with one clipped wing to his chicken caravan full of ladies, while Ennis settles into life in the fixed yard. Farm life can be harsh.

In other news, we've spent the last two weekend running our first workshops on the farm and they went better than we could have hoped with lovely, interesting people who seemed to enjoy the day immensely. Which is wonderful, because we did too and we hope to run LOTS of days like that! Photos of the finished farm kitchen coming very soon.

Hope your day was better than Jack's.

xxx