The Woodpile Hen

The woodpile hen is a black Pekin bantam. She has learned and adapted to the area to which she and her partner Spike have been exiled. Spike is her partner for the times being and gets underfoot sometimes, causing the lady of this cottage to say, ``lookout Spike'', to move him on and ensure he is not where he might get hurt. This pair live where the wood for the fire is stacked rather haphazardly and handy for splitting, and appears that insects are attracted to places where a lot of wood is kept, and of course there are the insects that are already under the bark which help to lift it from the sap wood. This woodpile is the hunting ground and foraging area of the woodpile hen. This is an area she discovered when bullied by others if she was where they could see her and here she is out of sight and out of mind of those who would otherwise have caused her some grief if not bodily harm don't go.


Spike, a birchen Pekin bantam rooster was the same, all the roosters and the guinea fowl would chase him about without allowing him any rest, and he hid behind the rainwater tank and amongst the wood pile, where he couldn't be seen and where he met the woodpile hen and they teamed up. Two souls whose circumstances and possibly preferences were similar and they made this their home and each other their companion. The splash rooster and his gentle hen live in the ark closest to the woodpile and already had some of this area marked out as their territory, but they were happy enough to share, and were never as interested in the food source which was the woodpile as much as they loved the shade house grotto where they spend most of their time. The grotto is where they spent most of their day during the warmer months, in the cool moist shade on the ground beneath the shelves of trays and pots high enough above them to be of no real concern or interest.

But the little black woodpile hen is a worry when she forages to get the first insects as the wood is split, because pieces of wood flying through the air are of little concern to her single minded intent upon capturing and eating any insect that are found in the separation of the bark. An insect exposed by the violence of the action of splitting is certainly lost. On several occasions the split wood, flying through the air has landed near her and given her a fright, but nothing deters her quest for the tasty morsels that lay exposed to her careful scrutiny and quick beak as the wood is prepared for the fire.