Hazel Griggs

by Hazel Griggs
read 17th October 2015 in Orpington

One day the owners of Twinkle could not find her, they searched and searched, finally they telephoned me. Of course I drove over and went into their big garden, here I called her name and to our surprise she came out of the undergrowth instead of her usual bed in the large shed. Surprisingly she was followed by a baby chick. This little chick was coloured white, not black with brown neck feathers like its mother. This was such a mystery, who could be the father of this sweet little chick? Soon the mystery was solved. Flying into the garden was a white cockerel, it turned out to be Cherry, flying from the farm which was near by. This was such a surprise, a rather nice surprise, we named the baby chick Sweety because she really was so sweet and very friendly, Her parents Twinkle and Cherry were so fond of her, it was lovely the way they stroked her gently with their beaks and made sure she was eating properly and having enough sleep, which meant a day sleep snuggled between her parents in the afternoon and going to bed early. When she was six months old she could use the perch with her mother in the shed instead of sleeping on a nest of hay.

Sweety was quite mischievious

by Hazel Griggs
read 17th October 2015 in Orpington

One day my next door neighbour Mr Ward offered me a Day Old chick which was not eating and would die. I accepted this baby and carefully nursed it back to health. I hand fed it, anointed its emaciated little body with olive oil which allowed its first tiny feathers to grow. I was told it was a female which is known as a pullet, this meant that one day it would lay eggs, welcome news in these war time days of food rationing. My father cut a hole in his shed as a front door for the little chick to go to sleep and later on to lay its eggs.

As it grew and the comb which is its fleshy top of its head became bright red I named her Cherry. She became very very tame and even when she was out of my sight running loose in our huge garden she would come running to me when I called her name or whistled.
She loved me picking her up to be talked to and stroked. I would sit on the seat at the top of the garden cuddling her on my lap. Her adult plumage was white, and she looked so smart with her bright red comb.

I was fifteen years old and the second world was becoming dangerous, this meant that we must all dig our own air raid shelters in our gardens between air raids. We lived in a row of houses running at the back of our huge garden and were very friendly with all our neighbours, calling out and talking to them as we all dug our air raid shelters.

It was a lovely hot summers day as we helped our Dad dig, this was very difficult with the heavy clay soil. Suddenly we all heard this sound of a cockerel crowing…..there was Cherry crowing and crowing away, Cherry was a boy, a cockerel, never to lay eggs. You never heard such laughter as all the neighbours, my sister and brother and my parents and I laughed and laughed. There was Cherry standing at the highest point of the air raid shelter, crowing and crowing!

Later on I found a kind farmer who would look after Cherry because we could not have him crowing and annoying the neighbours. I used to cycle over to see him and he seemed quite happy in his new home. He still had the strange limp affecting one leg from his early illness, and he still remembered me.

by Hazel Griggs
read 17th October 2015 in Orpington

I used to love looking at my day old chicks snuggled under their infra red heater every Spring. They were in The Lodge a building next to my kitchen. It was easy to go down my three kitchen steps into the back yard and into the next door. They stayed there for six weeks.

However this time one of the chicks would notice me and would leave the heater to come up to me. Instead of being pure black like the other chicks it had a few brown feathers round its neck. I did not really notice it at that time, I was probably cooking lunch and just taking a few minutes to check that no chick had strayed too far away from the heater. As they grew older and stronger they would move away from the heater naturally.

When the chicks first arrived they would be snuggly packed into a small box where they could keep warm. Newly hatched they did not need food, the egg that they left that morning had provided enough nourishment. Their first meal was a very fine grit which would fill their gizzard to help them digest food. They ran about eagerly picking up all the grit with their little beaks.

Their next meal was tiny pellets of nourishing food, they were always provided with clean water. One day I found a dead chick, horrified I notified the authorities and an inspector came to find the cause, having fifty day old chicks meant I had to notify them. I was very relieved to hear that the cause of the loss of my little chick was that mice had entered the Lodge from my next door neighbours and frightened the chick away from the heater. The inspector became a good friend, very interested in the way I kept my chicken and often called.

When the chicks were six weeks old and not requiring heat they were transferred to an Ark outside in the orchard. This was covered with mesh, and one end was their sleeping quarters. The Ark was moved daily to fresh grass, when they were older at three months they were allowed to safely run about outside the Ark. However the orchard was divided into pens by a tall fence so that no fox could harm them. Also they were carefully locked in at night to make sure they were safe from foxes.

At the age of eight months and at the point of lay, when they would soon be laying eggs they were transferred to the deep litter house. I was so lucky to buy the house, I saw the advert and very early in the morning drove to the address, it was just the right size for fifty laying hens. The kind man even paid for it to be delivered to me. I was also lucky that a very kind electrician friend fixed up all the electric system. I needed electric lights for night time inspections of the hens. Also I would carry my vacuum cleaner in to dust the ledges once a month.

The deep litter house had about a foot of wooden shavings, called litter. These I collected free from one of my husbands Councillors about every three months. They remained clean but gradually diminished, needing a top up sometimes. the Councillor saved the best white shavings and helped me put them in my sacks to carry them.

The deep litter house had automatic water and feed systems, my Inspector friend said that it was the best running deep litter system in Kent. Also he said being a woman was an advantage because the chicken remained calm producing an egg each a day. whilst entering twice a day to collect the eggs and make sure the chicken which I called my girls were alright I noticed one of them would come up and follow me. I realised it was the same chicken with a little brown feathers around its neck, I called her Twinkle, she always kept close to me and I would pick her up and stroke her under her neck.

One of my daughters friends, Victoria wanted a chicken so I gave her one and told her how to feed it, they had a large shed with an opening for it go in and out. A perch was made inside for it to sleep. I found that my chicken would choose the same position on their perches every night, this made it easy if I needed to pick up one examine it.
I could tell if they were laying eggs.

One day I had a phone call from Victoria, her chicken was unwell, I told her to bring it to me to see if I could make it better. However after about a week it sadly died, I did not tell Victoria this but gave her Twinkle, Explaining that the brown feathers on her neck were due to the medicine.k

Thirty years later which was a very long time, I heard that Twinkle was still alive. I drove over to see her, she heard my voice and came running to me. She was still laying an egg a day, but it was a soft egg, with no shell, she was allowed to eat it. I wished I had a camera to remember this remarkable Twinkle.

by Hazel Griggs
read 17th October 2015 in Orpington

They were just little seeds, a special offer from the supermarket to be taken home and store in the large glass storage jar on the window cill, a Christmas present that Emily was given. She was wondering what to keep in the jar. The shiny black seeds half filled it.

One night Mary was just going to bed and went to the kitchen for a glass of water and she noticed that the glass storage jar looked different, walking closer she realised that the jar was full little snake like serpents growing rapidly andsquirming tightly together, the seeds were really eggs.

Horrified Mary found a large empty aquarium and tipped the wriggly creatures into it and placed a tight lid on after making some air holes. she went upstairs to bed but found that she just could not sleep, sleep really escaped her, so finally she went downstairs and made herself a really nice cup of tea. The same tea that she had posted to Hazel in England, and watched a game show on television, whilst nibbling some meringues which she had bought to eat with strawberries.

Strange how the shock of seeing these squirming snake like creatures had made her so wide awake. The frightening thing was their rate of growth, they were the size of eels, perhaps they were eels and should be placed in a river.

Still feeling apprehensive Mary took a photograph of these tightly packed squirming slippery grey creatures.
These were sent to scientists all over the world.

At last they seemed to have stopped growing, but Mary locked the kitchen door before creeping upstairs to bed.

Waking late the next morning Mary hastily showered and dressed before waking Emily. Downstairs they went to have some breakfast and quietly unlocked and opened the kitchen door. but there was no sign of the eel like creatures. Emily did not really believe the story that Mary told her. However Mary persuaded Emily to help look for them. They were just going on holiday so Mary helped Emily to pack after their breakfast and off they went in Mary s car for a camping holiday.

However they dismissed this worrying experience as they drove off to the countryside near a river. they found a nice area with beautiful views to build their tent and the weather was nice enough to just wear T shirts and shorts. the birds seemed extra colourful and their song beautiful. They knew their were no crocodiles and dangerous snakes in this area so they could really relax in the warm Australian sunshine and had many picturesque walks.

They switched on the television when they returned from their camping holiday to hear that some one in London had found a nest of eel like creatures underneath their bird table and they were growing rapidly just like Mary and Emily’s. More reports of similar creatures occurred in Australia. Identification by expert on the photographs recently taken by Mary proved inconclusive, they not typical eels apparently.

About a month later all these creatures turned into chrysalises hanging fro from flower plants before reappearing as beautiful butterflies. a TV crew investigating the countryside for their next film about a murder mystery discovered the dry empty chrysalises hanging down from any plants making the foliage black. Large areas of blackened countryside appeared and were increasing. The government required urgent information, scientists took samples and did their best to monitor the situation. There was a fear that food may become affected.

However a scientist in Australia discovered that if you caught these creatures and kept them in large aquariums they would produce eggs looking like little black seeds, they were just like Emily’s little black seeds. However it was found that these seeds contained oil, which could be used to drive cars, power lights and heating in houses and be used to cook. a very useful commodity in these days of oil shortage and very cheap to have.

in fact people were already buying these special greenhouse to provide their own oil.Mary and Emily were soon interviewed by TV companies and spoke on television, they were becoming famous.
They even spoke in the Australian Parliament and were invited to meet Queen Elizabeth in London.
However all these exciting experiences had to be done in the school holidays. they were very thrilled to receive a substantial cheque each which they put in the bank. Ian thought the money should be invested in his coffee shop business. Mel felt she needed a holiday, she could leave the twins with Mary and Emily.
Mary and Emily were trying to think of something to buy, may be new clothes. Then Mary thought that it would soon be Emily’s 6th Birthday and thought that it would be a good idea to make Emily a birthday cake with 6 candles, also she would take Emily to the shops to chose as present.

THE. END. NONE OF THIS STORY IS TRUE, LOTS OF LOVE NANNA. HAZELXxxx