Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

[Bridgets Mum]

Background
After many years in the chicken-less wilderness my return to chicken keeping took place in September 2011 with the arrival of Pearl, Titch, Flora, Iris and Olga. They were scantily feathered, had grey faces and long nails and spent the first week stretching their wings and dust bathing constantly – just because they finally could. Twelve months later all five ladies celebrated their henniversary almost fully feathered and by Christmas, after 15 months, they finally all had plumage to be proud of. We lost little Flora, the wannabe duck (loved to wade) at the end of February this year and the flock suddenly seemed much depleted.

March 2013
The news that there was a St Helens rescue last weekend prompted us to the realisation that we could accommodate some more ladies and so last Saturday we were joined by Arabella and Portia (Posh Totty), Nemo and Coral (scuba divers?) and Jenny Jones and Torah (snowboarders). They settled into their temporary accommodation very quickly although Nemo had us worried the first day as she was so quiet and never opened her left eye. A good night’s sleep put her right and she is now one of the cheekiest and will take food from my hand.
They ladies all very eager to sample new food and in addition to their layers crumb they have enjoyed grapes, strawberries, mixed corn and at least one mouse. Little savages! There were 4 eggs on Sunday and three today, one of which was laid from the perch and didn't survive the drop! Our old timers seem to have given up laying so it’s amazing to be loading the skelter again.

Here’s a picture of all the girls as one flock on paper only. As yet the two flocks haven’t even seen each other as the new girls are staying indoors for a bit until the weather improves. Hot house cages to our current snowy wasteland seems a bit too much of a leap for the first week at least.

[MissEllie]

What a lovely flock, looking forward to hearing more about their adventures

[Linda S]

Gorgeous girls and i love the photo of Pearl striding out she looks like a hen on a mission Lindaxx

[sandy]

What a clever way of showing your girlies Glad your quiet girl is okay, thank goodness yes mine seems to be now too. Looking forward to reading their journey through their new wonderful life

[aishakali]

I love little brown hens Great pics

[Benny&Co]

What gorgeous little ladies you have there Bridget

[Bridgets Mum]

Thanks for your lovely comments everyone. I have to agree that the ladies are rather gorgeous!
Its day 4 with my newbies now and all seems to be well. The only tiny bit of pecking took place on Sunday morning and now everyone seems to be getting on well. No new red marks on their combs. Just as well they all seem reasonably easy going because I really don't want anyone challenging Pearl for top spot, it'd be carnage.
They're each choosing their preferred spots to sleep and lay and I now, for the first time ever, have a lady who lays in a nest box. I feel a bit bad that they'll have to get used to another new environment at the weekend, but I'll make it as familiar as possible. There are mice in that building too so my mini T Rexes should be happy.
They've laid an average of 4 eggs per day which I wasn't expecting. For some reason I thought that they wouldn't lay. The skelter is looking very unfamiliar - all but one egg on it was laid by the newbies.

The new girls are very vain and spend a lot of time preening. I'm always amazed at their contortionist abilities when they want to groom difficult to reach areas.
The oldies got a good free range session yesterday morning although I had to bring them in rather suddenly because one of my neighbours let two of his dogs into the adjoining land to my chikkie playground. His adult dogs are fine but the puppy/teenager was beside herself with excitement and bouncing happily along the fence line. They're quite big dogs, vizslas, and I didn't want to risk disaster.
I've ordered a rambling rose to plant outside the Walk-in-Run and am going to order the girls' hanging basket plants now.
Happy day.

[Annie]

Your flock is lovely and it never ceases to surprise me just how much variation in coulour and the patterning on the feathers you can get with little brown hens.
Even your skelter has various shades of egg shell.

[sandy]

What good news your lucky girls are thriving so well Looking forward to hearing how they get on with their move

[aceface]

wow they are lovley ladies and check out that skelter too ,these hard working girls never cease to amaze me they flourish with a bit of tlc and have us twisted round their little fluffy bloomers in no time at all ,i can tell you are hooked on thes elittle battered brown hens i look forward to hearing all their antics and the photo is very posh too i cant wait for saturday to meet my new brown girl im so excited

[Bridgets Mum]

Your flock is lovely and it never ceases to surprise me just how much variation in coulour and the patterning on the feathers you can get with little brown hens.
Even your skelter has various shades of egg shell.

My thoughts exactly Annie - the different shades and patterns within their feathers are as beautiful as any fancy prancy breed. My oldies are ISA Warrens and have wide areas of different colour. The newbies are Goldlines and have lots of variation in adjoining feathers. Tortoiseshell chickens! Oddly, the Warrens are more gold coloured than the Goldlines though. Perhaps that'll change in time, at the moment the newbies look a bit dusty and dull.
Little Brown Hen, Little Brown Hen...... That's the nearest I get to poetry!

[Bridgets Mum]

i cant wait for saturday to meet my new brown girl im so excited

I'm excited for you!

[Benny&Co]

That's a mighty fine collection of eggs on your skelter Bridget

[Bridgets Mum]

That's a mighty fine collection of eggs on your skelter Bridget

Thank you. I don't want to eat them - I'm too amazed. The skelter thought it had gone into early retirement.

[Bridgets Mum]

You know how it is when you move one small item of furniture in your house and it leads to the whole house being rearranged? Well that was today - all we were doing was moving a little coop out of the hen house and moving a different one in. How long could that possibly take?.... Virtually all day.
It started with a bit of rearranging in the Walk-in-Run. The original ladies were keen to help.


And could barely restrain themselves from checking out their coop (super exciting to have the same old coop - but in a new location)


Then they got bored and went off foraging


I went off to get some bricks but heard rustly footsteps behind me. One thing about keeping chickens - you're never alone! And we don't have rolling acres. The camera seems to have made a small piece of land look enormous.


Eventually everything was sorted for the newbies to go in the old hen house. We'll soon be adding their photos to the family portraits on the wall. In the meantime it'll help them learn the names of their new big sisters.


Here they are looking a bit lost in their new very clean but rather boring surroundings. We'll work on some enhancements tomorrow.


The old girls have been relegated to the shanty town outside.


Its only temporary ladies - honest!


The new girls were very obliging about being re-housed yet again and all put up with being caught without too much stress (to me - they weren't bothered). Jenny Jones was the first down the ramp into her new little run. Followed by Nemo and Arabella. Later on they were all wandering in and out apart from Portia, I didn't see her out at all.
And they did chickeny scratching.