It is every parent's nightmare but entirely inevitable.
In life there is no getting away from the subject, at some point a stranger will suddenly appear in your family's life. This could be visiting in person or by being brought up constantly in conversation.
However, it leads to an awkward situation, where you are simply too embarrassed to ask outright.
Are they a friend who is a boy, or is he a boyfriend?
Although this is none of my business anyway.
So our ladies have acquired a gentleman caller. He is a dashing fellow, colourfully dressed who has been spotted out and about in the neighbourhood.
Generally singing and showing off a bit, initially I didn't take much notice, but I discovered him in our garden today, hanging about the hen run.
He didn't scarper the instant that he spotted me. He just moved quietly down to the bottom of the garden, lurking and trying his best to blend into the background, pretending he wasn't there.
The four girls seemed non plussed by his presence.
He is a Ring-necked Pheasant who I'm calling Lord Percy (of Blackadder fame, as he doesn't seem the brightest and dresses foppishly.) 
I'm not sure which of the ladies have caught his eye but I'm not sure they up for romance. As British Hen Welfare trust rescues, they have had no experience of males of their species. I have absolutely no plans to disturb the peace by introducing a male into the flock, primarily to keep our neighbours onside.
Cockerels are pretty noisy.
I believe the girls have had a hard enough start in life, and the realities of rough wooing-chicken style, would be more than a bit much for them cope with.
So far I have discovered that pheasants and hens can interbreed although I have no plans at all, to encourage that type of behaviour.
Pheasants originally come from Asia and were introduced in Europe primarily as a game bird. The common pheasant is one of the world's most hunted birds with scientific name Phasianus colchicus. Other close relatives include partridges, jungle fowl, turkeys, quails and peafowl. So you never know who might turn up next.
Pheasants eat similar things to hens, so perhaps food, not love might be in Lord Percys mind. They eat a mixture of grains, grasses and seeds as well as bugs and worms and they roost up high at night in trees.
A rooster pheasant will typically have a small harem of females during the spring mating season. Female pheasant hens lay clutches of around 12 eggs over a fortnight period in April to June, in nests on the ground. Incubating them over a period is around 23 days.
Sadly in the wild, they have a lifespan of only a year so this may prove to be a short lived romance.
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