Wimbledon and the Weather

Really enjoying the sun when it’s out and been catching up on Wimbledon.  Totally intrigued by the women’s tournament at the moment, the Williams sisters are out so the competition is really open.  I’m a big tennis and golf nut so today was super exciting as Rory McIroy spent the day at Centre Court and then him and Murray had an interview on the BBC and it was interesting to hear from the both of them.  I like Murray but my heart will always really be with Tim.  Apparently Murray’s whole family are really good at golf.  I wish I could get my handicap down but my wing to eye co-ordination has never been great so I’m destined to struggle on!  The People we live with here play golf.  I think he might be a bit better than her because when they come back from their round she doesn’t talk about it very much and he is always smiling.  Maybe her wing to eye co-ordination is weak too? 

Aside from watching sport us girls have been working.  We’ve been churning out 2 eggs a day between the 3 of us and the People have been making a lot of pancakes!  It’s good to be appreciated, when we were in the Other Place no one ever commented on our egg production – morale was pretty low so there was no real motivation to make an effort and up the ante so to speak.  Every time we pop one out the People rush out and start announcing it, it makes you feel wanted you know. 

Hoping you are all enjoying the tennis and the heat, catch up with you all again soon! 

p.s. Don't you think Djokovic looks a little bit like a microphone?  A microphone with a steely resolve who could destroy you at tennis, but still....

Politics Yah

So I was chatting to the other girls today about some global issues.  Politically we’re quite a mix.   I suppose I’m a little bit on the right, quite an old school conservative (‘if the coop aint broke don’t fix it’ kind of outlook) but TripleA is way more to the left, a real champagne socialist, always spouting on about equal rights for all animals (hello, did she never read ‘Animal Farm’?) and the bleeding environment.  She would just let it all hang out.  “That sounds like it would be anarchy” I hear you cry.  Exactly – she’s a real hippy chicky.  Recharge is more on my wave length when it comes to politics, a realist, she certainly nods a lot when I discuss the changes being made at the moment so we had a really good chat this morning over the water bowl. It got quite heated at one point as TripleA overheard us from the nesting box and Recharge managed to change the conversation so we didn’t have a row.  We talked about less controversial topics.  Will Cheryl Cole get back together with Ashley and do we think Kate Middleton is just a “clothes horse” or is she so much more?  You know the kind of convo.  That’s what retirement is, time to talk, to share, to chat.  The People have been pretty quiet this week.  Apparently he’s away doing something called ‘surfing’ but it sounds like nothing to do with the internet.  She’s been letting us out LOADS in the garden and we’ve made sure to eat all the heads of the carrots they were growing for us in gratitude.  They’re ace.  Ooh here she comes now actually with some fresh water.  I’ll just get offline and go and say hello...

Will they, won't they eh?

Retirement - The Reality

Hey guys, so we’re really getting to know the place now.  All getting along OK (there have been some moments where I just think “Man I wish I was back in Row 5 with my buddies”) but overall a good atmosphere in the coop.  And the People are giving us treats.  We’ve had water AND layered pellets to eat.  Tasty as.  So aside from blogging you’re probably wondering what I do with my time.  Well at the moment I am living quite a relaxed life.  Retirement has been new and it’s hard to tell myself sometimes to SLOW DOWN.  There’s no need for all the rushing and the laying of my working life, I am here to lie back and enjoy life.  So I’m going to take a chill pill (not an actual pill, I’m not that kind of hen!) and take a moment or two to think what I want from it all.  I’m also thinking of taking up some hobbies.  Maybe watercolours. 

I’ll keep you guys posted.  And before I go, here is a picture I saw that really inspired me this week.  It’s like, the world or something.  Clever.

The Good Life

Sooooo.  We’ve been here nearly a week and things are getting far more normal.  I was chatting to Recharge about the benefits of our new home, and the negatives.  We came up with this list:

Here –

Positives:

Increased living space.

A varied diet.

Internet access.

More down time.

There –

Positives:

Always someone to talk to (friends). 

The feeling of being part of a large community.  

Negatives: 

The feeling that you were in a cage.

Overall we think we have definitely benefitted from the move.  It has been great to get to know Recharge a little better. Moving Day was weird as we hadn’t actually met before then.  I knew Recharge by reputation (he was pretty popular in Row 3 but our cage tended to hang out more with Row 6 and 7) but I had never met TripleA.  She won’t mind me saying it but she’s quite a freaky looking bird (she thinks she’s a penguin – I know!!)  I’ll post a photo of her below so you get the idea.  She got really cross when I took this – said it was her bad side.  This coming from a bird that can turn her head round like 180 degrees or something.  Whatever!  Anyway we didn’t move in the same circles AT ALL.  She came from Row 17, so was more down the Window End and I was Near-To-The-Barn Door End.  The Window lot are obviously slightly bizarre – Triple A said there were other ones like her but I never saw them.

Here is a photo of her. 

Settling in and setting up!

Wow an exciting first few days!  Despite the rain I’ve been feeling quite chipper really.  Been on the internet a little, getting a feel for it.  I’ve got a profile on Twitter now AND got my first few followers.  I wanted to follow people with ‘similar interests’ so typed in ‘Eggs’ to begin with and got all sorts of people up.  Am planning on following quite an eclectic mix though – I’m not JUST interested in chicken stuff - I’m so much more than that.  And that is the great thing about the internet I think – there are just so many people to connect with.  Oop... that was a bit of a battery gag for you there (old habits die hard!) but you get my meaning.  Oh, the FUNNIEST thing that happened today (this will crack you up... oop there I go again, an egg pun now, I can’t help myself can I?!) is that I followed this ‘hen party’ thinking “Yeah they’ll be tweeting about good times” and then realised they weren’t talking about actual hens you know!!  It was something totally different!!  Anyway that had me chuckling for a while this morning.  Crazy times! 

Catch you all later.  Or laters yeah (that’s like street talk).

Welcome to my Blog!

Hi guys!  Well I suppose I better introduce myself.  “The Chatty Chicken” was my idea for my blog as, well, I suppose I am the talker of the group.  I’ve always been chatty, like to keep things light, so I thought this blog was perfect.  A good place for me to air my views, meet people of a similar mindset and generally communicate.

So here is a photo of me and my homies (they hate it when I call them that!)  We’re ex-battery hens, now living the dream in our retirement.  On the right you’ve got Recharge, on the left there is TripleA and I’m in the middle (the good-looking one), Duracell. *would be waving to you if it wasn't a still photo!*

So we were re-homed on June 8^th 2011 (we’ll have to go into that later, it was all pretty traumatic... Triple A is yet to speak) and now we live in a luxury apartment in the nice bit of Royal Berkshire.  “Is there a bad bit?”  I hear you cry, well yes actually, but I don’t want to be negative in the intro.

So the Man People who have taken us in are nice.  He has strong hands and a soothing voice and She is a bit nervy but quite fun to talk to.  He is sort of a normal man person (not dissimilar to the guys who worked in the Other Place) and she looks sort of like the Man Women we used to see on calendars on their walls.  Only she smiles more and wears a few more clothes.  Anyway they seem pretty cool so we should have some fun times.

I’m not going to babble on for hours on my first post, suffice to say they’ll be plenty of time for that later!  Ha, ha.  So welcome one and all, I look forward to making your acquaintance...