Custard, and her sister Tilda, were part of a hatch of chooks destined for the table. They were incubated and hatched along with Florence and Roobarb.
Tilda was a particularly tame and friendly little girl,with a habit of tilting her head on one side and listening while we talked. I decided to keep her at home, and Custard (along with Roobarb) was going to join the breeding flock at the allotment. In the end I decided to keep Roobarb at home too, and I couldn't introduce just 1 hen to the existing Allotmenteers, so Custard joined our Garden Girls too.
Custard was big bully of a chicken. Grumpy, bad tempered, and really horrible to any subsequent hens. She led many attacks on Tilda, and so she was a hard chicken to like.
Over the last few months she had become a bit less nasty.
Like Florence, Custard became much more hand-happy over recent weeks. She fed, gently, from my hand, and would pop out of the Pampas when I called her. She even let me stroke her and, once, pick her up and put her on my lap.
In fact she was slowing down considerably, dozing a lot, and we could
see that this was probably going to be her last year. Ironic then that
she should still be alive after the fox attack. Her injuries were so
severe that we had to cull her.
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| Custard (R) and Florence. |
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| Custard (R) and Roobarb |
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| Custard (R) and Roobarb |
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| Custard (R) and Florence |
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| Custard (R), with Roobarb 9C) and Tilda |
