March 18, 2025

Hide and seek

Keeping bantam chooks that are completely free range is all very well, but it’s a problem when they choose to scorn the nesting boxes in the palatial shed that is their chook house. They don’t even roost there at night since being spooked by a feral cat or quoll attack years ago. Bantams clearly have longer memories than most give them credit for. They’ve never gone back, choosing instead to roost in a tree that is arguably less safe than the chook house.

 

But it’s when they decide to go bush to lay their eggs that’s tiresome. Most were being good as gold this season, but with a few cooler nights last week, and summer on the wane, the rats and mice are moving closer to the chook house – and probably our house as well! - where they know there’s likely to be a free feed. And so it was. Two eggs had been scraped clean of their contents with just their broken shells remaining. Time to bring out some rodent bait.

 

I was already sure one chook was laying somewhere else, as she’s done before, so it was a matter of revisiting some of her previous haunts. It took a while but finally found her just as she was ready to settle in for the duration. A pointless exercise given the eggs weren’t fertilised since we have no rooster, but chooks never seem to get that bit.

 

So we managed to scoop up a dozen eggs, and left her with just one to keep her happy for a few weeks before she’s tossed off her makeshift nest, as they all have to be eventually. Theoretically chooks are supposed to know when the three-week incubation period is up, but every time it’s a triumph of optimism over harsh reality, even if it does take several attempts before that reality kicks in.

 

John’s theory is they’re all getting desperate because they’re getting older and their instinct is to reproduce before it’s too late. Maybe he’s right given he knows more about chooks than I do. Certainly we’re amazed they’re all still laying given they have to be at least seven or eight years old which is positively geriatric in chook terms..


And they’ll never know how privileged their lives have been compared to their farmed cousins.


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The controversial and unaffordable stadium

By Anne Layton-Bennett • November 18, 2025
Political controversy continues about building Tasmania's third stadium at Hobart's Macquarie Point, a monument to the AFL that the majority of Tasmanians have consistently said they don't want and which they know is unaffordable at a time when public services are at crisis point. Yes to a team, No to a new stadium.

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By Anne Layton-Bennett • November 9, 2025
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Strange and Marvellous Things

By Anne Layton-Bennett • October 27, 2025
Well done to the north-west Tasmania branch of Fellowship of Australian Writers . Once again their editorial team led by Allan Jamieson have produced an excellent anthology, with the intriguing title – as above – and an undeniably quirky cover. The rather wonderful octopus is just one of the creatures on it, indicating a watery theme until your eyes pick out the morose-looking frog, sporting what appears to be a death-cap toadstool hat, and a moustachioed chap apparently hitching a ride to work on a magpie. They all suggest an intriguing mix of writing to be explored within. I appreciate I’m a little biased in promoting this collection of stories, memoirs, poems, anecdotes and travelogues of far-flung places, since I've got work included, but after my copies arrived in the post last week, and from dipping into the book already, it really does look like another interesting and eclectic read – as FAWNW’s previous anthologies have proved to be. Tasmania is definitely not short of some talented writers, even if all of them don't necessarily have a published book to their name. Neither do I as yet, but with my magnum opus finally completed, and currently being strategically submitted to publishers that are ones most likely to be interested going on their previous publications, my fingers are firmly crossed. For a first-time author I knew this part would be difficult, as well as time-consuming given the lengthy delays before possibly receiving that much anticipated email or phone call - or not if the six- eight- or ten-week deadline is reached with no news at all - but hoping that with Dr Bob Brown on-side and putting in a good word when and where he is able to do so, my submission will be plucked from the pile sent by other hopefuls. Then it will be a case of hoping it will spark enough interest to ask for a publisher asking to see the full manuscript. Strange and Marvellous Things (edited by Allan Jamieson, FAWNW) 2025 is available online or at good bookshops. RRP $25.00

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