Monday 14 July 2014

Meet Baptista and Friend

Posted by Rosie

Baptista

Meet Baptista - she and here sister (as yet unnamed) are the newest additions to the menagerie at Eco-Gites of Lenault.  She has come from a friend whose bantam hen had sneaked off under a hedge somewhere and successfully evaded M. Renard to hatch a brood of chicks. Gwenaël asked if I would like a couple of females and of course I said yes!  They make great broodies if you want to hatch some-one else's eggs and just look how pretty she is with her gorgeous feathers and fluffy hairstyle!

The biggest problem has been where to put them as they are, at the moment, small enough to get through the fencing in the main chicken run.  However the run with the young birds has smaller fencing so we thought that would be all right.  These young birds are destined for eating so they are quite big and we were rather worried they would attack the new arrivals.  Ha!! We could not have been more wrong.  We put Baptista and her sister in the run and immediately the bigger girls took fright (and flight), dashing into the corner and 2 of them managed to flutter over the fence!  In the meantime the newbies had settled themselves in the shed and were as happy as anything, oblivious to the mayhem they were the cause of.

Plan B was brought into action - an old hen ark was made secure with odd bits of wood and the little girls were placed in there, well away from where they could scare the others.  They can stay there until they are big enough not to get through the gaps in the main hen run.

"Ah", I hear you asking (perhaps?), "but why the name Baptista?"

Well, Gwenaël's oldest son is called Baptiste.  Like the chicken above with her fluffy hairstyle, Baptiste also sports a somewhat fluffy crop of hair so it seemed appropriate that we should name her after him!  


Baptiste and his hair!


Baptista's sister (right) is, however, still without a name.  Maybe you could come up with one for her.

Baptista (left) and Friend

11 comments :

  1. I do love to eat chicken, but I am one of those meat eaters that cannot eat anything if I have seen it alive and kicking first!!! Yes I should be a vegetarian! Instead I bury my head in the sand and try not to think too much when I am eating!!

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    1. You are not alone in this way of eating, Lisa. I am the opposite though. I only want to eat meat htat I know where it has come from and that has had a good life and a quick end ... and the easiest way to do that is to rear and eat my own.

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  2. How about Bianca? Baptista is the father of Kate and Bianca in taming of the shrew. :-)

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    1. I rather like that - thank you Jenny, Bianca she is :)

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  3. Oh gosh I have no idea what to call a chicken - hope you name her soon x

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  4. They look like lovely new additions to the farm for you all

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    1. Thank you, Fiona. They are a bit flighty thought, so I hope we don't lose them.

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  5. Sje looks like an Amanda to me. Dont ask why it just popped out of my head =P #whatsthestory

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    1. LOL - I know a couple of Amanda's but I am not sure they have ever had a chicken named after them! I am going with Bianca but if you want to call her Amanda that is fine by me!

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  6. That's such a brilliant story Rosie. Loved the chicken's hairstyle as it was but that photo is just brilliant. Great additions to the farm (the chickens obvs!). Thanks for sharing with #whatsthestory

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