Two of the new additions to the chicken our brood of hens.
OPINION
Just when we all thought things were looking good for 2022, another curve ball is thrown our way.
However, I'm not going to write about the C-word (Covid ) the D-word (Delta) and definitely not the O-word (no explanation needed).
Instead I'm going to take you on a little chicken trip.
There's a Facebook group that I belong to and last Friday I saw a post from a person wanting to rehome three chickens, one with a foster chick at foot.
The foster mother of the chick was a bantam but we are unsure what the other two were and have no idea what breed the chick is.
Anyway, I replied and said we would love to rehome them and sent the person a picture of Mr Neat's girls.
We messaged a few times and she said yes, she was happy to rehome them with us and that we could have the coop as well.
Exciting. I hadn't told Mr Neat he was going to have "new girls" to look after. I was confident he would be happy.
He was. I showed him the pictures and the next morning we set off with a cage in the back to collect the new little family.
An hour after our arrival we had managed to catch just two of them.
We did catch the mother but then the little chick went to ground and we couldn't find it anywhere. So we let the mother hen out and finally got the other two into the cage after a mighty battle.
They squawked and tutted, ran under trees, hid in their coop and did everything in their power to outsmart us.
They did a pretty good job, the feisty little things.
Finally we got them decided that until we left the chick would not reappear.
So the owner said they would catch them in the morning and start to dismantle the coop.
I honestly thought it would be easy to catch them. Most of our chickens just sit down when someone tries to pick them up. Sometimes they do a runner but eventually they just stop.
When we got our last four chickens they were very young so we separated them from the others. This time we decided that these feisty chickens would be able to fend for themselves.
We clipped their wings and let them go. There were a couple of skirmishes but those chickens were not going to be hen-pecked. Ten days later they have settled in nicely, they still stick together but they come running with all the rest at feed time.
Anyway we returned the next day, picked up the chicken and baby and the coop. These two would of course have to be separated so we put them in a big gated part of the chicken paddock and they promptly walked straight out the other side.
Before we could do anything one of the chickens had a crack at the chick. It's quite big though and it was fine. We managed to chase them into another coop and lock them in while Mr Neat did some repairs.
Finally on Sunday afternoon the coop was rebuilt, the mother and baby were safely enclosed, although the baby has walked out a couple of times. Mr Neat has named it Scooby Doo because we are always asking "where are you".
Don't know if it's a he or she yet but it has very long legs and is already taller than its little cute bantam mother.
Basically the entire weekend was taken up chasing chickens.
Mr Neat did comment at one point that perhaps I should consult with him in the future.
Not a chance. He's got his girls and now I've got mine.
• Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today