Marmite maketh the Hen

-
Clarrie was looking a bit seedy over the past couple of days. The other three newbies have taken to their new surroundings with vim, but she has been a bit off; staying with the others, but not diving in with the gusto the others have.

I was wondering whether I'd have to whisk her indoors and install her next to the Aga (do wonder what dog and cat would make of that) but after I took the hens up the ends of a white loaf yesterday, and she fell upon it with glee, I haven't been so worried. I did hover over the internet though, looking up ways of cheering up hens, just in case. The eglu site suggested feeding marmite toast to your new hens, presumably to cheer them up.

I think Clarrie is maybe a sensitive hen, who is missing her original home, so I hope the marmite toast will convince her that despite the windy prairies; so unlike their nice enclosed garden, and the bolshy bantams, that it is ok here really.
So, £2.77 later (Marmite has gone up a bit since I bought it last) here we are, tempting toast at the ready.

She likes it....


They all do, in fact.

Happy Clarrie.

I think I'll persevere with the Marmite. Dog, who likes to come and help with the hens, likes it too.

Comments

Val said…
Marmite toast...Now that's what I call a lucky hen! lol

I think a sense of humour is an essential ingredient when raising animals..or kids for that matter ('cept then the sense of humour needs to be MUCH bigger) I've been having an ongoing chat with a very protective Swinhoe cock pheasant each morning...he's very handsome and very aware of his role as Lord of the Manor looking after his ladies and 'throwing feed down is sometimes taken as an attack...that he doesn't know quite how to respond to.. he's recently found that sitting on the high perch by the door so we are face to face ..(so to speak) is far less stessful..well at least it is for him!

perhaps the B vitamins in Marmite would calm his nerves????
21 January 2009 at 15:48
Jane Badger said…
Gosh, I hope those B vitamins would calm him down - I'm not sure I'd relish a cock pheasant at eye level!
22 January 2009 at 09:52
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more