Day 193.

Frauke and Kristen. Photography by F L Campbell

Bush eggs: nun. Nest box eggs: nun. Feed hopper: empty.

Steve, Brian and I were talking about foreigners today. I mean, I don’t like to sound xenophobic or anything but those spangled Hamburgs that we had here two summers ago were so weird. Sure they were beautiful: sleek white bodies with a dash of black on the end of each feather. Nice-sized combs and wattles, good clean legs. But they talked funny – like a very squeaky wheel laboriously climbing a hill in search of oil – none of us could understand much of what they said. They used to stick together and were very aloof towards us. I got to know Frauke a bit better when she was sitting on her first clutch of eggs but Kristen and I never hit it off. They were both extremely pretty but so overbred that they died horrible sudden deaths at quite an early age. Kristen especially was riddled with pea sized tumors if you believe the gossip (which I did on this occasion).

Overbreeding has been condemned in the Handy Hints for Hens book since the very first printing. Every chicken knows it is ill advised to procreate with your nearest and dearest. But sometimes young hens and roosters from the same family are put in the same small pen and they can’t contain themselves. They are so proud of the chicks they raise because they are often amazingly beautiful and the people who keep them think they are perfect. But disaster lies quietly on the inside of these pretty birds. This time bomb then awakens when the chicks near sexual maturity and they die: quickly, horribly. This is why I always counsel caution in the selection of the father of your chicks. I heard a story about one unfortunate hen whose chicks kept dying. It wasn’t until her fourth set of chicks died that the rooster (obviously not a talkative type) told her a bit about his family history and they found out they were brother and sister! She was so shocked she never went broody again. Now I know Jack is my son, and sometimes I think I would like chicks so much that I will thrown caution to the wind and breed with Jack, but reality has always stopped me.