The inspiration for the two brown hens in the story of ‘Busy Miss Hoover’ came from two real Rhode Island Red hens we bought from Bury St. Edmunds Cattle Market in Suffolk.

These hens were part of the menagerie on our smallholding in Burwell, Cambridgeshire, UK. Our collection included seven ducks, two peacocks, forty hens, a Jack Russell named Harry, two cats—Lex Luther and Clarky Larky—and Kassuku the parrot, who often visited from London for a countryside holiday.

Anyone who has kept chickens knows they can be quite silly and each has its own strong personality.

Inflatable, for example, was named because she always puffed up her feathers whenever she was near us.

Although she was friendly, I suspect she felt threatened much of the time, leading to this habitual puffing. Inflatable was also remarkably amenable to homoeopathic medicine. She once pecked up an Arnica 30c pill from my hand without hesitation, a very amusing sight!

Tumbleweed was another hen that often hung around with Inflatable.

One windy day, these two hens became immortalized in my memory. The Fens landscape is flat and open, and the wind can blow fiercely across it, making much dust from the topsoil. From my kitchen window on one of these windy days, I saw Inflatable and Tumbleweed being pushed across the lawn by the wind, struggling to keep their balance. Their wild, windblown feathers made them look like tumbleweed rolling across a desert. The sight of these “circus hens” was hilarious and unforgettable.

Both chickens remained in perfect health. When we eventually moved and our menagerie days ended, our next-door neighbours took in the two hens, where they lived happily for many more years.