Le Couvent Diary

A further update for fans of Darling the hen, who's becoming a big-chested beauty. She's getting all the best of the table scraps and provides endless entertainment just outside the kitchen door. Unlike our other bully-hens, she's also still laying, despite freezing temperatures and very short daylight hours.

 

The dogs are loving the underfloor central heating and spend entire days stretched out on the kitchen floor. 

 

The tree still has it's baubles as the cat's way too fat to consider knocking them off.

 

 

 

 

The entertainment season is well underway and this household is getting through industrial quantities of mince pies. The gammon arrived safely from the UK and is currently bubbling away in cider, along with leeks, carrots, peppercorns and celery before I roast it in a honey and cider glaze. I'm hoping it will be as delicious as yesterday's wonderful rib of beef.

 

 

 

Thanks for all the kind messages sent to Darling the hen who suffered at the beaks of her bullying sisters. I'm delighted to report that she's obviously much happier since moving to her own quarters - to the extent that today she laid her first egg for a month.

 

 

 

 

Darling is gathering a fan club, so, as her agent, here's some more information about her. She's a 9 month old Sussex Light bantam who adores kicking leaves around.

 

 

 

She was an excellent layer, but her production ground to a halt as soon as the big girls started jumping on her. Her response to their attacks was to run and hide behind a 1500 litre oil tank and refuse to come out until I called her, whereupon she would leap into my arms to be carried to safety.

 

She's an extremely friendly hen and it's a mystery why the others suddenly took against her after a summer of living together perfectly happily. Her favourite food is bacon, but when that's not on offer she's placated by pasta - tagliatelle by preference.

 

 

 

Her current aim is to dash into the kitchen and here's Ali persuading her otherwise.

 

 

 

We'll keep you posted on her progress.

All through the summer our lovely guests ask us how we spend our winters. Well, between wine-making, repairing the house, looking after hens, dogs, cat and garden, catching up with friends, travelling and so on, the winter seems to pass very quickly.

This week we've been trying to find a pair of iron 'eyes' that we can cement into the wall upon which to hang a heavy old gate. We're trying to keep our chickens apart since one of them has become seriously picked on by several of  the other hens. Hanging the gate will allow Darling (the hen-pecked hen) to have her own area away from the bullies. Finding the hinges has proved a hopeless task and has used up a good two days of this week. It seems we'll have to have a pair made. I'm making a last-ditch effort to find them at the flea market this weekend, before commissioning a pair.

Meanwhile Darling has a temporary new home outside the back door in a small courtyard. She now has a ton of leaves to kick around and no big girls to worry about. In fact she seems to have forgotten she's a hen and follows me everywhere, watching my every move through the office and kitchen windows, leaping into my arms the second I go out to feed her. It's all rather flattering.

Here she is in her new billet.