The boys were culled in two batches, some in December, some the following February. Spike, the Exchequer Leghirn cockerel escaped being culled because he was so irresistably handsome. We gave him a few ladies, and sectioned off part of the allotment for them. He was a disappointment, all fur coiat and no knickers. He looked stunning, but he was not particuarly good with his ladies, wasn't a friendly chap with us, and eventually started to attack the Other Chap that looks after the allotment. He was culled separately.
Of the girls, we'd originally planned to keep 2 or 3 to add to our allotment flock, and the rest were going to be dinner chickens like their brothers. We let the girls run with Spike in the meantime, and we got used to the idea of them staying as his little flock. When we decided to cull him, we didn't really want to cull the girls, so they all joined the allotment flock. This meant that the follwing year we had no space for any females to join the flock, so all the chicks we hatched ended up as Dinner Chickens.
Back to the 2012ers. Apart from Gorgeous Glory, who had a name because she had been a contender for staying in the garden flock , the others didn't really have names. Our cockerel at the time was Henry, and the Girls were named after 5 of the wives of Henry VIII, but we tended to just refer to them en masse as "the Harem".
Glory - or Gloria, as she became known - came back from the allotment after most of our garden flock was taken by a fox. We had only Poppy left, and the poor shell shocked girl needed a companion. Gorgeous Glory was the obvious choice.
Asfor the other 5: One of them, nominally Catherine of Aragon, had to be culled in 2016. The second, nominally Anne Boleyn, died unexoectedly and peacefully in November 2018. In February this year, DH had to cull the third, Jane Seymour. Today, another one, nominally Anne of Cleeves, was dead: old age, no sign of trauma. Like all the Harem, she was a steady, kind girl, very intelligent, and very secure in her space. I'm sad that she's gone, but I am happy that her death was quick. And I'm happy that she had a long and (I believe) happy life.
So we have only one of the harem girls left. This means that that the two Barnevekder boys now have only 5 girls, so we will have to think about whether to return one or more of the Allotmenteers from here to there.
Yesterday I had been thinking about the likely demise of Poppy and Gloria, and whether I'd bring any allotment girls back home permentantly to occupy their space(s). Now that we've had 5 of the allotmenteers here, I think the answer is yes, I would. I can't imagine not having at least one of these gorgeous black hens in my garden flock.
It was brought home to me even more when I was trying to rescue Summer last night. She'd gone in to the Allotmenteers run. She was fine while she was hoovering up their treats and eating from the jostaberry bush, and they were letting her get on with it. It wouldn't have been so fine when it came time to go into the coop.
Anyway, I put my arm out so she could fly up on to it, and she looked at me like I was stupid. Elizabeth, one of the allotmenteers, flew up immediately. She hasn't done that since we took her to the allotment 2 years ago.
I guess she's earmarked to stay.
