When is a chicken not just a chicken?...

If you are a resident of the UK, or of Europe actually, you have no doubt had some form of contact with the current avian influenza outbreak - even if it has just been seeing some tragic images on the news and switching over. Unfortunately, switching channels and not worrying about it isn't an option for anyone who keeps poultry, including us here at The Keep, and measures have had to be put in place to make sure our girls don't go getting poorly.

Initially, like many a backyard chicken keeper I imagine, I was fairly sceptical and thought only large institutions where poultry was kept in the thousands had cause for any concern. However, it soon became clear that even the odd bantam poking around someone's veggie patch seemed to be at risk and we went into full ' oh crap this is really happening!!' mode. Netting, tarpaulin and poultry shield in hand we went about securing our coop as best we could and have kept everything crossed regards the whole horrible matter ever since. My only hope is that being somewhere near the middle of the country, as opposed to being near a coastline, offers us some tiny shred of protection. I wear a single pair of cheapo croc -type shoes to go in and out of the coop - never anywhere else - and our nearest chicken neighbours (again a small flock in a ladies back garden) are about a mile or so away.

Anti-viral bedding should hopefully help.

Am I clutching to every shred of hope out there? Yes, I guess so, but then I do have an ever-present and wholly thriving reason to be. That lovely canal at the end of the garden - remember the one I gushed about all those months ago when we first moved in, the one that I thought would be amazing to sit by in the dusty summer evenings and that had us rubbing our hands together as we signed for our new home? Yeah, that canal - home to tens if not hundreds of wild birds and supporting hundreds more just within the half mile stretch of our street and the dog park. Every single one with the capacity to carry AI and introduce it to my lovely girls...

Frankly, it's terrifying...

Every scratch of the ear or shake of the head is now inspected and worried over like it could be the beginning of a zombie apocalypse. Imagining Defra swooping in and then being the 'bad owners' of the flock that bought AI to the midlands, to potentially ruin the lives of the farmers in the area through some small carelessness... Horrible just isn't even close to describing the very idea of it.

Above all though, I watch my beautiful girls, each one of them, and simply cannot stomach the thought of having no choice but to have them destroyed because of this devastating disease.

Having lots of treats during lock down.

They are not my livelihood, it's not the loss of income or any kind of reputation that has got me chewing my fingernails down. It's the thought of losing a single one of them - their personalties, their companionship, their voices on a freezing cold morning, their funny arguments over a shred of cabbage, the constant and comforting responsibility of being their care-giver... I'm scared to lose my friends.

My chickens have long been an unconditional part of my happiness. What ever I spend on them, however wet and cold I get taking care of them, how ever many 'crazy chicken lady' comments or ridicule I get from people who just plain don't get it, it is nothing compared to what I get from simply having them in my life. For an animal that many people see only as food, they have been capable of more than many people I have  known - that is to keep me going when everything else has failed.

So, when is a chicken not just a chicken? The answer is simple and the same for any animal. They are equal to, if not more important than, any one of us if only we recognise it. When we open our hearts and lives to any living creature they become a part of us and that makes them incredibly precious.

Maybe, in fact I hope against all hope, we are over the worst of this current epidemic and that the already devastating loss of animal life is coming to an all too slow end. It's not the best start to what I hope is a really promising first full year here at The Keep and my heart genuinely goes out to anybody personally effected by this awful blight on our feathered friends.

Lets have many more days shared with those that keep us smiling - human and animal alike.

Come rain or shine it'll still be mine.

G

365 opportunities to do something awesome...

So, 2017 is here! It came with a subtle sort of fizz here at The Keep - mainly because my head and my heart have been focused on the months ahead for ages anyway. The turn of the new year was merely a speck on my internal life planner, I did celebrate with a glass or two though of course!

Did we all have a good Christmas? Did santa bring us something nice? Did we get through the big day without setting the new kitchen on fire? The answer to all is yes,yes our first Christmas in our beautiful new home was absolutely as lovely as we intended it to be and here's to many, many more to come.

Now, though, I can barely contain my manic planning and researching and selecting and mass purchasing for all things backyard farm!! My ebay purchases list reads like an ' edible plants guide for dummies' everything from savoy cabbage to phacelia tanacetifolia, if it's a seed that grows into something edible or beautiful it is currently on it's way to my letterbox!! I ache for a vaguely warmer day when I can spend a couple of hours putting together the raised bed boxes that I've had in storage for what seems like a lifetime. The posts for the next chicken coop poke fun at me every time I walk past them and empty seed trays in the greenhouse practically slap me when I glance at the blatant lack of anything taking root in them. I want to scream at 2017 to hurry up! Be done with January where everything is dormant and freezing it's cockles off, let February be unseasonably mild to give me chance to prepare a little and then rock on March when a few of my seed packets say I can begin planting the first miracle-inducing seeds that will become the beginning of the amazing thing that will be our garden! Our wonderful, grow it - pick it - eat it, hard working, clucking, buzzing, organically grown GARDEN.

2016 bought so many things and a whole heap of inspiration - I just want to fill 2017 with everything I learned and yearned for.

Along with the extraordinary list of seeds that are on their way I've also begun eyeing up some new members for our little clan... I collected our hens from their 'Christmas holiday home' (we were away a lot so we boarded them at Paige's Poultry at Barton-under-needwood again - fabulous people with an even more fabulous flock, look them up if you are over this way!) and when I went for a little wander around, as I do when I'm there, I spotted the most dazzling little bantam Orpington cockerel that would suit my little girls a treat. He's one that bounced back to them for rehoming too, so it would even be a 'good deed' to take him on. There were also some really pretty little geese... I know I want some form of waterfowl for The Keep, but have been ummin and arring of exactly what to go for. I adore geese, the big, grumpy guard-dog kind,but realise we can't really offer enough space for those, little ones could be a game changer though... we'll see.

Probably the grandest edition to our creature features this year will be the bees. D chipped in with most of our family to raise the money to buy me a hive for my birthday the year before last, but with all the moving about we were doing we couldn't really get the bees. This year though they will have the perfect spot amongst the many bee-attracting plants I have lined up for them and should, with any luck, produce some lovely honey-a-la-chook-hook.

I know I haven't stuck to the weekly updates I had, at first, promised to do - my only excuse is that for every time I didn't log on and write something it was because I was DOING something instead! So I won't apologise too profusely. This year, however, you're probably going to get sick of me... here's to 365 opportunities to inspire you, to produce and provide, to raise and ripen, to work hard and make something awesome! oh and eeerrm get married at some point!

Come rain or shine it'll still be mine.

G