Today we thought we'd just do the usual and treat the hens at around 3:30pm with some mashed cabbage, potatoes and a mix of stuff leftover from yesterday that they left. We usually leave it till later in the day as we want to make sure they eat their fill of pellets to get a balanced diet.

Keeping my beady eye on you!

All was going well until Pecks spotted one of our cats spying at her through the patio door. All this time we've been pretty good at keeping the hens quiet (as if we had any control over that!) and so far, the neighbours haven't noticed that we have hens.

Until today.

Pecks really let rip with a panicked, alarm calling, look at me, look at me type of call. The type you generally associate with hens but in real life, up close and personal it was louder than you think!

So here we are, saying, "Shush!" to her, as if she understands what that actually means...

Pecks notices Thelma

Anyway, she calms down when I block her view of the cat and we talk a bit more. So we then decide a toy of some sort would be good in the run. I grab an old stone pot and shove it in while the hens are out. Little did I know I was doing the chickeny equivalent of farting in front of a vicar.

Off Pecks went again and didn't stop until I'd hidden the pot away from their run. Maybe she thought it was the cat?

If the neighbours don't know we have hens by now...