Dust-Ups and Doves

Tempers flared in the garden today.

The first to shatter the peace and quiet were our Araucana sisters, Punk and Rebecca.   They are usually close friends and when you see one of them, the other won't be far away.   This was true this afternoon when they were side by side eating the lawn.   I can only imagine that Punk ate a piece of grass that Rebecca had her eye on, because Rebecca pecked her sister's head so hard it made Punk squeek.   Our generally docile, really laid-back Punk was so cross she retaliated - and then some!   She ended up with a mouthful of Rebecca's feathers sticking out from her beak at all angles.   Do not mess with Punk is our lesson for today.

Then it was Maggie's turn.   She's a bolshie old bag to start with and has never taken any nonsense from anyone.   However, I think she must have had a headache or something today, because when Fizz sidled up to her and said the cockerel equivalent of, "Hello honeybun.  Do you fancy a love-in?", she flew at him with her considerable expanse of feathers fluffed up to their fullest extent.   She chested him and kept running after him to chest him again and again.   Then she turned and marched from the garden into the coop.   She reached the gate just as Irene was coming out, so she had a go at Irene too.   You might think that chickens can't possibly have facial expressions, but I'm telling you that Irene looked astonished.   She, of course, had no idea what had gone on before and even less idea what she'd done to upset Maggie so much.

Then Fizz spotted a Collared Dove gliding towards the garden, it's eyes firmly fixed on the dish of corn which we'd put out for the chickens.   He did what he always does when he spots birds that aren't chickens and yelled out, "CROW!!!!!!!!!!!!" at the top of his voice.   He gave the dove such a fright, it belly-flopped into next-door's hedge.

There's never a dull moment with our lot.