Malcolm the scan man has just been to PD (Pregnancy Diagnose) the ewes before they lamb in March. 68%, not bad, has been better. That is the figure that Malcolm gives us at the end of the tests to determine the success rate of the autumn tupping period. If 100 ewes were all scanned with one lamb it would be 100%, if they were all expecting twins 200% etc. But of course there are always a few ’empties’ that bring the average down and a few triplets that push it back up.
Apart from finding out about the sheep I also wanted to ask Malcolm about Phil our cockerel. A couple of months ago he started walking very strangely, what can only be described as goose stepping round the yard. And less mobile, often to be found on his own and generally out of sorts. Because we’ve had him and his hens such a long time – Malcolm reminded me it was seven years since we bought them from him – they’ve become rather an institution. As our chickens are free range (very), they travel all over the fields, usually Mr Fox gets them after a year or so, but somehow Phil and the gang have managed to outwit him and avoid that end. When my girls were home for Christmas they insisted we investigate what the problem might be.

A trawl through Google threw up a host of grisly conditions like Bumble Foot and Scaly Leg Mite but none of those seemed to fit the bill so pics and videos were dispatched to Sarah our lovely vet. She thought it might be a neurological thing but more likely arthritis and recommended the equivalent of chicken paracetamol. Injecting a chicken is not something for the faint hearted and lovely docile Phil was most certainly dischuffed – so not a long term solution.

Malcolm was also convinced it was just old age. He was amazed that he was seven, apparently most cockerels run out of puff at about three and rarely live beyond five or six while hens can carry on well into their teens. So having established the problem and determined that there is more to life than regularly injecting a non-cooperative cockerel we all agreed what had to happen.

Phil would be despatched in a humane way and the hens could continue for another seven years, but here’s the thing… Phil and his hens (which I didn’t realise when I bought them from Malcolm) are some of the very last living examples of the Brown Sussex large fowl breed in the country. Quite probably because although they look fabulous they are rather hopeless when it comes to regularly laying an egg! Malcolm gave up on them a few years back and only breeds Brown Sussex bantams – which he happily tells me are prolific layers – and he could only think of one other person in the country who still has them. Mr Crump in Gloucester.
Such responsibility. Any notion of trading them all in for some regular ex battery hens who would gratefully lay every day doesn’t seem to be an option and, without a replacement cockerel, their situation will be even more parlous. So Malcolm, who is now involved in this extinction prevention programme, has spoken to Mr Crump and a replacement will be winging its way to Coopers in the spring. Not literally. At time of going to press I have no idea how a chicken gets from Gloucester to Sussex but I’ll let you know when he gets here.


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