When ranging about a garden, they will view certain areas as places of sanctuary, most notably hedge bottoms and the shelter of large shrubs such as bays and boxes in particular.
My farmyard heroine, Debo, during her reign as the 11th Duchess of Devonshire, allowed Buff Cochins to range freely at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, but almost all her other breeds were cooped around the cottage garden or in the farmyard, where the current incumbents still breed a number of hens. The matronfaced, huge, pillow-like tangerine Cochins had feathered trousers that deterred them from vigorous scratching. With their calm and gentle demeanor, the Cochins bustled around under the gaze of Elisabeth Frink’s Walking Madonna on the lawn charming the visitors.
At Rousham in Oxfordshire, the flock of aptly named Mille Fleur Barbu d’Uccle bantams cackle their welcome as they range about like a moving flowerbed, usually close to the dense yew hedges. Here, they perform the poultry spacetime ritual that is the dust bath. This requires a hollow of dry soil that is then pecked until its tilth is as fine as a bag of sand, creating a dusty powder room. The earth trickles down into their feathers, helping to deter any mites.
Not all hens are suited to gardens, however, and many people demonise them. I often wonder if kind-hearted gardeners, new to hen-keeping, have any idea of the soil-flinging potential of ex-battery hens.
Denne historien er fra June 23, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 23, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
