Hi Orchard Lady and Lindeggs, what are your names ? If you don't mind me asking.
Thanks for the extra on this post, means a lot and I have to say that I honestly think you are right about the Hen Pecking business, I know cos I am Hen pecked all the time by 6 of the female species, 10 if you include my chucks as well !!! Wife included, infact she is the worst hen pecker of them all !!!!!.
Bicycles, well I am reliant on one at the moment, mans best friend is his dog unless his van breaks down like mine ! lol and without it we would be stuck, keeping me fit though so can't grumble, cold weather makes the tyres stick to the floor though maybe should try getting the wife out the house and on the bike once in a while :-) only kidding.
Lindeggs, what a shame you can't get a cockerel in due to city regulations, we are from m the city (Birmingham) so I know exactly how it is especially when trying to 'have space' not easy, my Mum now lives on the outskirts of Milton Keynes in a culdesac in the middle of nowhere and she kept chickens for 6 years, one day a neighbour over the back fence complained to the council about her chickens and even blamed the death of his cat on My Mums Chucks !!, he reckoned they had killed and eaten his cat, never seen again, (didn't realise chickens ate bones aswell as cats !! lol) , the supposed authorities came out to take a look after his complaint and she had to register all of them, have to say they almost locked her up when she kicked up a fuss, I think being able to identify each bird and put a name to them is what that did it, Mum was gutted, she has only just got Chucks back in 3 years later after 'paying to register the disposal of the previous 8 chickens as the guy wouldn't stop hounding her and dad whio is a builder, through 'legalities and apparently his and his cats human rights' I can tell you now her chucks were better off than the local farmers. Thumper her rabbit is happy to have the new chucks in of course, she also grows all the veggies etc and itgives her so much pleasure but even in the country where she lives, she is frowned upon for her work, Mum by the way is a vegetarian. If you have ever thought of moving out of the city I can say it's certainly not easy but is very doable. We rent our place in a posh part of Worcesteshire, it just happenned that way and we struggle all the time monetarily and with the hillbilly shotgun toting locals, our old house we rent in the city (with issues of course ) and work online as well as work day jobs and doing what we love doing to get to where we want to get to which is a smallholding of our own, seems to me you both have a good data base in your head, damn good start in my eyes, maybe you could start your own website if you haven't already ? Worth a shot to get started.
By the way, the cockerel sitting next to the nesting box brings back some memories of the chucks looking out for each other when laying, they even used to lay eggs in the same box and the non laying broody one Dolly, would sit on them, I once found 9 eggs underneath her when I eventually twigged that she was the decoy after searching every bush and corner of the garden after no eggs in the boxes after a few days, very clever girls and made me feel like a prison warden in all honesty so you have certainly given me food for thought, plus of course he would save me a job that is for sure, it is hard to live a double live, one as a cockerel and the other as a man, my chucks do listen to me (the wife just ignores me lol) and watch what I do, security and feeding times, my girls are free range but it doesn't matter where they are housed, they have a mind, sense and feeling, probably a heart as well, one that only a decent cockerel will truly understand.