Meet The Resident Birds

	HENS My favourite chickens are the battery hens that we have rescued which arrive in such a parlous state. They have hardly any feathers and are very pale and anaemic-looking from the days and months they have spent in cramped cages in the dark. The ex-free range hens are almost as bad as they have hardly a feather between them. When you get them they are known as “spent hens” on the assumption that their egg-laying days are over, but in fact that is far from the truth as they go on laying until the end of their days. You have to cosset the poor battery birds initially as the shock of being in the sunshine in the great outdoors would kill them, so at first they are kept in an ark with food and water close by but slowly, slowly we let them outside into the main enclosure and eventually you can hardly distinguish them from the others. It is lovely to think that they have the opportunity to lead a proper hen’s life at last.





	GEESE We are down to 2 Ebdens at the moment. a goose called Grace who has a deformed beak and an African goose who was an only pet and calls to us all the time.

	DUCKS All our ducks have come to us from elderly people who could no longer cope. Looking at a crowd of ducks on a pond they all seem very impersonal but, like the hens, when you get to know them they all have very individual personalities.

	PEACOCK Our peacock is called Narcissus of course and he spends most of his time looking at himself in his new mirror. He was born with a disabled leg and needs to live in a protected environment which is why he came to us. He has been joined by another unwanted white peacock.