Are they installed yet? Where are the pictures? What variety are they? So many questions for you to answer,really looking forward to seeing them,hope all is well.
04-05-2010, 09:48 PM
23
Re: Getting some Chookies!!!
Phew!!! What a weekend!Well, Ada, Aggie, Gertie, Gussie, Hattie and Henny-Penny have arrived!
Picked them up on Saturday morning, after getting lost on the way. Went with a friend, who supposedly knew the way, but she's got a brain like a butterfly and I'm useless at directions so we took a wrong turning and then bitched at one another for the rest of the way there!! That was a good start.
Hens were in a big barn, so were not used to perches or roosting. Chap who had them asked if I wanted to choose them myself, but quite honestly, they all looked very similar to one another, so I asked him to choose me six good, healthy birds, just specifying that I wanted two of the lighter coloured ones. They are all hybrid birds, Warrens (Ginger Rangers). I asked if he could trim their wings for me, so they cannot fly over the fence. He did, but I wish now I had left it, as I think he has cut them far too much. I know they will grow again in the normal moult, but I do feel a bit guilty.
Anyway, got them home and put them in their coop with food and water and left them to recover.
Next day - two eggs!!!! Hooray!!!
Monday - two eggs!!!!! Hooray!!!
Today - THREE eggs!!!!! Hooray!!!
They are settling in fine, except for one, who is being bullied by one of the others. Or, to be personal, Henny-Penny is bullying Gussie. Have spoken t/been talking to a few chicken people, who tell me a) it is still early days and it takes time for the pecking order to be thoroughly established, and b) there is always a "top" hen and a "bottom" hen. Poor Gussie! But she is eating and drinking and scratching around, so I guess she is OK. I will keep my eye on the situation, and if the bullying gets very bad, I will try some of the techniques I have read about and been told about to put Madam Henny-Penny in her place.
Now, I have no photos as yet, but I promise I will take some over the next couple of days, and then I will post them on here.
It really has been a very busy weekend, because until you actually have the hens, you don't know if the henhouse set up works properly, so I have had quite a bit of tweaking to do - like the ladder from the run up to the actual coop, which I had to alter, because these birds are not used to climbing and because the ladder was open between the rungs, it frightened them, so I had to make a solid ladder with no gaps!
Oh it's all good fun!!!!
Photos soon, I promise!!
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