I Love My Bantams!

On the bank holiday we were up on the Welsh border again visiting one of my favourite places - Onibury, home to a wonderful collection of Bantams. Set on a hill looking toward Wenlock Edge to the north east and distant Snowdonia to the north west are pen upon pen of beautiful poultry.

Their website isn't great but the place is magical. A few years ago it was for sale and if i didn't have gorgeous grandsons very close to my hertfordshire home it would be a perfect place to be me.

Thirty years ago, almost in another life, I found Stagsden bird gardens in Bedfordshire and have been hooked on bantams ever since. It closed over ten years ago, a real shame as there was an extensive collection of owls and many other birds too; we were frequent visitors for all of my children's childhoods. The day I first stumbled across it Ted was only at the start of his second year and we both needed some tlc. The bird garden was a retreat from the real world and i often fantasised about living and working there. There is something very calming about watching the little bantams preening, foraging and sunbathing, against a background of their contented sounds. The huge range of colours just among Pekins, my bantam of choice, now runs to over 30 but there are so many other beautiful breeds that it is hard not to stop there. Google images to see gorgeous sebrights, hamburgs, cochin giants and pretty little dutch bantams. I want them all! The only thing preventing me is that to breed pure you must keep your stock in pens and more than half the joy is in letting them range free in the garden. This is a good reason for choosing pekins - their feathered feet make them less damaging to plants and they are not great flyers so easy to contain. Over the past thirty years we have had blue, white, black and buff birds. Right now i have inherited a black hen and cockerel having lost a perfect little black hen under rather mysterious circumstances. The one we are left with is not pure (i was sold a 'pup') so we won't breed from her, but we get half a dozen eggs a week feb - november so can't complain. I prefer buffs and am deciding whether to get eggs when she goes broody, introduce another hen or wait until they peg out before starting afresh, decisions.....

Weirdly, though the weather was perfect, i was very down the next day, despite it having everything going for it. I just don't get it. But - the following day was my birthday when i am always up and there are always good friends who rally round - thankyou friends! I spent the day cooking (why cook unless to feed friends?) then eating, drinking, entertaining and being entertained. Got the perfect mix of prescription drugs and alcohol - no pain, no after effects and the laughter was real; memo to self: do it more often.