RIP Norman

Norman was an absolutely amazing little girl.

Her mother went broody, 2 weeks after we had collected eggs from that group of girls for incubation.  We decided to let nature take it's course.

Unfortunately, the mother's mothering instincts were lacking, and Norman was hatched and abandoned.  OC (other Chap) saw it happen, and took the poor soggy chick home to his airing cupboard. We collected the chick and, seeing no alternative, put it in the brooder along with it's 2-weeks-older 'siblings'.

She was christened Norman (as in "Norman no-mates") by my brother, and the name stuck.

She was tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny in comparison to them.

 Of course she had no idea that she was younger than them, she did the same as they did.

She was super-agile
 

When she grew up, she was very blonde compared to all the others.  

 

 

She had cockerel tendencies. The chicks moved back to the Allotment when Norm was about 8 weeks old, and she started to imitate her dad's stance. Even at that age, she would would often face-off against us. 

We believed her to be a boy, right up until the day she laid an egg. In fact, we separated her off, just to make sure it really was her who was laying.

She was no trouble, a real pleasure to have around.  She was 6 years old, but looked and acted like a 2 year old.  She continued to lay really good quality, hard shelled, eggs.

She was killed by a fox (or other predator) because some mindless thugs broke into our chicken shed and let the chickens out.