The thieves had been again, this time they had taken chickens. They had been unable to get the ones out of the shed (we think), despite shoving a drinking trough in through the pop hole and waving it around to scare the chooks off the perches. They had managed to get the ones who were sleeping in the other coop though: Sasha (my Appenzeller Spitzhauben, Summer and Blondie (the two silver leghorns), and Pong (one of the two silver grey dorkings).
They left the allotment open to predator attack, and the electric fence down. I looked for signs that some of the girls might have escaped and been killed by an animal predator. Honestly, I would have preferred to find their remains than to know that they were taken hy human scum. There wasn't anything.
Sasha has a unique beak feature, so if I saw her I would know her and I could provide photographic proof that she was mine.
We've brought all the remaining girls home. We've left the boys on the allotment while we make arrangements for them. Annie did not want to leave Geoff-boy's side, and she's going to be calling and calling for him this evening, just as she did in the time she was here before.
Nora, who is 9 and blind in one eye, is going to struggle to adapt to a new environment; Nora and Katherine, who is 8 and is Poppy/Gloria's sister, are going to struggle to establish themselves in the new pecking order with so many new, younger, faces. Ping is going to be the bottom of a much longer pecking order.
The girls who are currently in the garden, and have been establishing nicely in to 2 flocks and not too much friction, are going beserk. They are really agitated at the arrival of a load more hens, even though they recognise 2 of the combs (Fay and Annie).
It doesn't matter who was there and who was taken. All the Girls were loved, and all but the Dorkings were raised from eggs by us. If they'd taken the Oldies, I'd be upset that such fragile girls were ending their days this way. If Violet, Elizabeth and Bott, or Annie, had been taken, I'd be upset that my line of Welsh Blacks had been taken.
Miss Tween is very distressed. I don't keep these things from her, it's part of the trust between us. Her mum messaged me to say how upset Miss T was.
It is the end of keeping chickens at the allotment.
And that means the end of hatching chicks.
All those years. All those records. All that care. All that detail.
F***ing c**ts.
