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I haven't made it onto the Vine for a bit because of the summer hols, but this is news I need to share with you all - I have 2 new girls, collected last night. They were advertised on Freecycle, ex free range farm Warrens - there were six on offer but as I only have room for two more in the Eglu, I had to resist the temptation to have them all! We were going to get some POL's, but I felt sorry for these girls, who've been given the shove because they are no longer laying 'enough' eggs.
I was very apprehensive about introducing new birds to my existing two, as one of them in particular is a right bossy boots. I put them into the eglu at 10pm last night (great fun that, in the dark and pouring rain, in the middle of a windswept field
), and then got up at the crack of dawn to go and let them out before they looked at each other and thought 'hey up, what's going on here?!?' As I hoped would happen my two, Dusty and Snowdrop, hurtled out of the roost and straight out of the run into the electric fence enclosure, whereupon I shut the eglu run door and the two new girls (named by the children last night as Speckledy and Attila the Hen!), made a cautious appearance.
I've left the new girls in the eglu run for now, so that they can all see each other but not be able to fight - made a right hill-billy shelter for D & S from an old sandpit, with a carboard box nest box, they didn't look that impressed! I'll go down later and let them all out together for a while, on stand by to police scraps. From others experiences, how bad are they?
Now, a couple of questions for you good folk! Attila has very scaly legs, so I've done a search on that on here (what would I do without the Vine?!), and I'll be off to the chemist later to get some surgical spirit and vaseline - has this worked for those of you who have tried it? And the second question is that I noticed that Attila (her again!) has some blood around her wattle at the top of her beak - I think she may have had a slight run in with the others before I let them out this morning - is there anything I need to do about it? I'm concerned as I remember reading that hens really go for blood and worry it will bode unwell for the introductions later. (I'm not normally a worrier, honest
) her friend Speckledy seems to not be taking any interest in it. So that's it folks, wish me luck! 
I was very apprehensive about introducing new birds to my existing two, as one of them in particular is a right bossy boots. I put them into the eglu at 10pm last night (great fun that, in the dark and pouring rain, in the middle of a windswept field
), and then got up at the crack of dawn to go and let them out before they looked at each other and thought 'hey up, what's going on here?!?' As I hoped would happen my two, Dusty and Snowdrop, hurtled out of the roost and straight out of the run into the electric fence enclosure, whereupon I shut the eglu run door and the two new girls (named by the children last night as Speckledy and Attila the Hen!), made a cautious appearance.I've left the new girls in the eglu run for now, so that they can all see each other but not be able to fight - made a right hill-billy shelter for D & S from an old sandpit, with a carboard box nest box, they didn't look that impressed! I'll go down later and let them all out together for a while, on stand by to police scraps. From others experiences, how bad are they?
Now, a couple of questions for you good folk! Attila has very scaly legs, so I've done a search on that on here (what would I do without the Vine?!), and I'll be off to the chemist later to get some surgical spirit and vaseline - has this worked for those of you who have tried it? And the second question is that I noticed that Attila (her again!) has some blood around her wattle at the top of her beak - I think she may have had a slight run in with the others before I let them out this morning - is there anything I need to do about it? I'm concerned as I remember reading that hens really go for blood and worry it will bode unwell for the introductions later. (I'm not normally a worrier, honest
) her friend Speckledy seems to not be taking any interest in it. So that's it folks, wish me luck!
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