I’ve written before about my wish to have a few chickens roaming around. It won’t happen – partly because we have seven outdoor cats and I’m not sure that chickens and cats go that well together. So to get my chicken fix, when we’re out shopping in Manacor, I look out for the residents of what The Boss and I (and probably a lot of other people!) have dubbed ‘chicken roundabout’. This grassy roundabout on the busy ring road is home to a number of chickens – who don’t seem at all bothered by the noise of the traffic.

I wrote earlier this year about what the locals call ses galines de sa rotonda. It was a sad post to write because it followed the weekend when the flock had been attacked by what were probably dogs roaming loose. Bodies and feathers littered the grass.

In subsequent months, the number of chickens seems to have increased – and we’ve often seen chicks pecking around at the feet of their mothers. It’s been encouraging to see the flock growing again.

Home Cheep Home

A day or two ago I spotted something that filled me with happiness: Manacor’s famous chickens now have a hen house in the middle of the roundabout! Food and water dishes are inside and the chickens and chicks must be much safer now that they can spend the quieter hours inside their new home.

I took photographs today, but didn’t go onto the roundabout itself for fear of chickens fleeing into the road and the busy traffic. I don’t know who supplied the hen house, but the Ayuntamiento de Manacor (town hall) has put up notices on it asking people not to feed the chickens or to disturb them. A telephone number is provided if anyone sees anything untoward happening on the roundabout.

If our local town hall has spent a little of our municipality taxes on providing this hen house, I have no problem with that. I’m just pleased that our famous feathered friends can sleep a little more safely at night. It was eggs-actly what they needed . . .

Footnote: When I wrote my original post on this subject, 2,876 people had ‘liked’ the Ses Galines de sa rotonda Facebook page. Today that figure stands at 3,169!

Jan Edwards Copyright 2015