It finally happened! After nearly eighteen months, we were down to two chickens and Claude, my beautiful cockerel…..

Wiglet the Welshie got into the henhouse! After eighteen months of barking, digging, chewing at the fence, watching, and, occasionally getting hold of a chicken through the fence by it’s arse,she finally got her wish. Here’s the story, is life showing us the way?

We had no idea how old the girlies were when we got them, we just wanted to give them a good home. But over time four of the girlies have died, and the others had stopped laying.

We were in a dilemma, we have to demolish part of our old goat’s shed, and utilise the remaining half, so the chickens have to be evicted. But we decided we couldn’t give them away to someone who would ring their necks, especially that of my beautiful Claudy, as his days would be numbered for sure. But we were not sure what to do, build a smaller chicken run and house perhaps?

Over the past few days we have been clearing out our barn ( but that us another story) and were not in the garden. One of the remaining girls had been off colour and Wiglet, the huntress, knew it. It was the same poor chicken that she had tried to pull through the fence by her arse on a number of occasions, I suppose her days were numbered really. And today that day came; as we were in the barn Wiglet chewed through a weak piece of fence and was in with the chickens!

We heard the commotion and screaming and clucking but by the time Rich got there the chicken was dead, and Rich could see Claude being dragged into the henhouse. He thought quickly, Wiglet does not like loud bangs so he banged loudly on the henhouse wall with a lump of wood, and threw a rock at it, all the time we could hear Claude screaming, but as Rich took action Wiglet came running out.

Rich had told me not to go up there, and I was so sad for my beautiful Claudy, I did not want him to go into the pot, and now he was in Wiglet’s jaws and I cried.

I knew that I had to face it, and as I walked up to the chicken enclosure Rich was beside himself; the hen lay dead and Rich was convinced that Claude had been mortally wounded and that he would have to put him out of his misery. He went to get a bag for them whilst chasing Wiglet off, and I stood guard at the gate.

But when he entered the henhouse he found Claude hiding, and after checking him over, apart from the loss of his beautiful blue tail feathers he was okay!

So now a temporary fix is in place, with the chicken wire we had bought for the new enclosure, Wiglet has been scared off by a banger firework, and change of plan for the weekend: Rich will be building the new enclosure.

Let’s see how Claude fares, but we cannot be angry with Wiglet for long, she is only doing what nature intended.

It’s all go here…….

Moisy