Thankfully Lucy has stopped sneezing . . and is happy and healthy.  Both girls are getting a lot more tame, and a bit cheeky too.  Since the incident with Bramble, they've taken to climbing onto the henhouse roof to torment him through the dividing mesh.  You can almost hear the chicky version of nyar nyar nanyar nar .. I'm SURE theyd blow raspberries if they could.  Bramble is unimpressed and just turns his back on them.  Wont be baited.

We're very keen to keep them entertained and to this end have fixed a long chain to the aviary roof, at the bottom of which is a blunted hook.  From said hook we've tried a number of items for their delectation.  Cabbage got a few perfunctory pecks .. lettuce brought complete indifference.  Then we hung up a corn cob.  OH MY STARS !  They love that.  Imagine the scene if you will .. and it helps if you have Eye of the Tiger in your head.... One chicken pecks the corn, which swings wildly narrowly missing (usually) the other chicken.  Then the other bird goes in with the beak, and the corn swings back. Every now and then it doesn't miss, leaving a bewildered chicken staring at it thinking "what the hell hit me ???"  The corn seems to hype them up too.  Erin reported Lucy running round and round in circles and every now and then leaping vertically, then running round again.  Perhaps, she suggested with a grin, the corn is fermenting into whisky inside

And finally - (hey if the 10 o clock news can do this why can't I ??) Today has brought another milestone.  Both girls got on the henhouse roof tonight, just as dusk was falling.. instead of going to bed.  I crept out, trying not to spook them but to gently shoo them to bed .. but got really close.  I couldnt help myself.  I reached out and gently stroked Matilda's glossy black/green back.  She just stayed put, quietly clucking away.  Lucy looked at me but didn't jump up so I was quietly singing a chicky sort of song to them, and stroking both of them.  It was a very cuddly moment.. and I picked Lucy up and had a real serious cwtch before gently popping her into bed.  Awwwwwww So now I know .. if I need to handle the girls for any reason . . sneak up on them at dusk !   mwahharharhar