Chicken Licken Good

Football playing Chickens have driven silly dogs off the front page of the Berwickshire News And just around the corner from the Old Manse to boot (No Pun intended)The story goes:


There's fowl play on Hutton farm!

Chickens encouraged to play football to keep them fit and healthy

I believe my chicken's eggs are the best you can buy"
Farmer James Maclean
By Kenny Paterson
TURKEY may have been one of the shock troops of Euro 2008 but they are not a patch on a team of footballing Scots chickens.
The birds like nothing better than a kick around with a football to keep them fit on a free range egg farm near Hutton.
They have punctured at least a dozen red balls since the start of the season according to farmer James MacLean but have not been involved in too much fowling.
He explained the chickens are given free access to the outdoors, fed organic cereals and encouraged to play football to keep them fit and healthy.
They are also fans of BBC Radio 2 which is played to them each day as background music and are regularly given fresh sawdust to scratch in, all part of the owner's commitment to animal welfare.
Mr MacLean claims this has led to the exceptional quality of their organic eggs which will be showcased at the first ever Taste Scottish Borders Food Fair next month.
He set up his firm Border Eggs at Hutton Hall Barns in Berwickshire last year and soon realised his chickens had a passion for the beautiful game.
Mr MacLean, 30, said: "The chickens like the chance to scratch around outside and knock around a football. We also play Radio 2 to them, especially in the mornings as it seems to encourage laying.
"I believe my chickens' eggs are the best you can buy and we'll be selling them at a new food fair which will showcase the very best produce from across the Borders at the end of July."
(The Taste Scottish Borders Food Fair is taking place as part of the ever-popular Border Union Show in Kelso on July 25 and 26 and will feature dozens of producers from the Borders and surrounding areas.)

I wonder if the RSPCA have a position on this. Forced to listen to Radio 2! How cruel is that? Would not the silky charms of Radio Three be more humane for Organic Guardian Shredding Fowl?

I suppose it could be good news for Borders football fans-sign up the best XI chickens for Berwick Rangers-they could hardly play worse than the present selection-and under pressure,peck away-the expression 'dead ball' will have a
new meaning.


The image from the Berwickshire is apparently of Chicken Licken scoring an own goal preparatory to telling the King-or another Highheidyin-that the Sky Aerial (receiving Radio 2) has fallen in.

Labels: Fowl Footballers, Hutton, Organic Chickens

  ¶ 8:15 PM