The title of this blog refers to me.
It was my turn to see to the allotment chickens today. I took some rinsed tuna, and some mealworms. I gave the tuna to those in Henry's harem who were moulting. I took them, one at a time, off to their shed to give them a once-over to check they were OK,
The leftover tuna I put on the ground in front of Henry, who made me smile by picking it up, gurlgling for his ladies, and then putting it back on the ground and looking at it. He did this several times with the same tasty morsel.
During all of this, I kept an eye out for the Potential Bully. In fact, she was one of the moulters, and I put a ring on her so that there would be no risk of confusing her with any of the others. She had a bit of a pull at the yellow-ringed-and-saddled Girl -YRaSG-(one of the ones she had a pull at on Saturday), but was otherwise OK. No one else picked on YRaSG.
In the other pen, Spike attacked me, and managed to get my legs before I found a stick to hold in front of me. It bloody well hurt, and I found myself being quite pleased and relieved that he will be joining the Dinner Boys shortly.
When all was done, I came home, and emailed OC (Other Chap) to let him know that I had put a ring on the Potential Bully, and that I had observed only one feather plucking incident.
He replied to say that he had watched them for half an hour yesterday, and she had been having a pull at a number of the others.
So, she's on the Probably list for joining the Dinner Boys.
If we weren't planning a cull shortly, I'm not sure that I'd be ready to make that decision. However. Henry was actually only meant to have 3 wives, but we somehow didn't get round to culling the last lot of Girls. He has plenty. He may soon have a lot more if we decide to combine flocks for the winter.
But the real reason is what happened with Milly. Now she was in a different bullying league, I know. But it took a long time and a lot of heartache to make the decision, and it was a decision that I should have made earlier. Things are much better without her.
The pain and learning from it has made me much less tolerant. Almost intolerant.
