Air Defence Chicken

Mrs U has persuaded the broody hen to hatch eight chicks -- four of our eggs and four (of six) from a Black Rock breeder (I keep wanting to say Northern Rock....) and the time has come to let them out for a little air in an improvised run of their own.

Magpies and kestrels are an obvious worry, but it seems that hen is ahead of us. Mrs U thought the was looking a little odd one day, as the chicks cheeped and pecked in the long grass around her. She was carrying her head strangely -- almost as if she was watching the sky. Which she was. There was a single black speck circling in the skies. And the air-defence chicken led her mixed brood indoors.