When we lived at “Glen Witheren” in the 1990s we had a feral Guinea fowl arrive, who took to attacking our hens.
This hen took refuge on a chair on the front verandah for weeks until we were able to eliminate her tormentor.
She had her own chair with a suitable old coat where she spent the night.
Joyce Libke’s hen took up a place on this chair on her verandah.
Very early in the morning she would go down stairs and only come back during the day if she needed to lay.
Surprisingly, she did not ‘mess’ on the verandah.
Coming in at night became a real ritual – up the front steps and onto the back of the closest verandah chair (mine).
Now this chair had a bath mat in the shape of a big green frog as a backrest.
She settled on the top of the back cushion when night was closing in.
Des would take her to her own chair where she settled for the night.
After her tormentor was gone the nightly routine continued for some time, until the day she went into the pen with the others for her afternoon feed and Des quickly shut them in.
I have another set of photos showing another white hen that had joined her on the verandah, on the day they both needed to lay at the same time!
