Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

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aishakali
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by aishakali »

Love watching them dust bathe:-D Its just pure ecstasy on their little faces. The pic with her eyes closed is wonderful)t'
LYN

Bridgets Mum
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Bridgets Mum »

aishakali wrote: Love watching them dust bathe:-D Its just pure ecstasy on their little faces. The pic with her eyes closed is wonderful)t'

I don"t know how many pictures I took before I got one with her closed eyes and upside down head. Roughly a gazillion!
Bridgets Mum
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Bridgets Mum »

Oh dear, bloodshed in the chicken run. I have had to separate the Black Rocks from the Amber Stars. Tessa (the one I described as naughty, who is now officially a BADDIE) has been showing an unseemly amount of interest in Florence"s rump but today she was drawing blood and Florence was hiding out in the coop. So I now have Tessa and Image in the henny shed with access to a small run, my big girls in half the big run with only a little coop and Florence and Esmeralda in the other half of the big run, with a big coop. I only hope Esmeralda doesn"t get interested in pecking at Florence because I"ll probably have trouble getting her back in with Baddie and Image. Both Florence and I are now a fetching shade of purple.
sandy
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by sandy »

Oh no hate it when they misbehave resulting in blood! Bridget are your new girls ex bats? I am confused…love Esmeralda ,chicken in a basket?
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky

Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
Bridgets Mum
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Bridgets Mum »

Happy, happy free range day
sandy wrote: ! Bridget are your new girls ex bats? I am confused…love Esmeralda ,chicken in a basket?

Hi Sandy)wav(
No they're not rescue hens. Posh birds from a posh farm. I love them but feel guilty. Need some new gingers pdq. Need to get this gang settled first.
I LOVE the chicken in a basket idea.)app( )app( )app(
Today we had a super happy day. I let the big girls out. Then, because I knew I could spend some time with them I let the little black girls out. There was a bit of handbag flinging but not too awful so I plucked up courage and let the white ladies out. And it wasn't too bad at all. I was able to get on with my gardening and just occasionally intervene when things got a little heated.
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They all decided "the other man"s grass is always greener" and spent time in each others runs, eating unfamiliar food.
Tessa spent a lot of time with me "helping" relocate some bluebells. At one point she hopped on to my back (and I was daft enough to walk about bent double for a bit) and later on she sat on my husband's lap.
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Bed time was amusing. I gave my usual chicken call and the big girls came running. The new girls all looked up in amazement (my chicken call is pretty weird) then shrugged and carried on worm hunting. Why on earth did I think they would magically come? They let themselves be rounded up though and are all safely tucked up in their various quarters. Beautiful, clever, gorgeous chickens.
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Bridgets Mum
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Bridgets Mum »

Stoat Reinforcements
Well, after the carnage in my neighbour's chicken house I am now totally paranoid about a weasel/stoat/mink getting in with my chickens and have spent the whole day hauling coops and runs around, changing my mind, moving partitions, falling over feeders etc etc. The final set up is the 4 goldlines and 2 amber stars in the big hen house with the pop hole closed at night (first time its been closed since in was built two and a half years ago - I'm lucky it hadn't seized up) and the two little black rocks in a small coop with a small attached run and their pop hole open. Their mesh is half inch and I have slabbed all around so I'm fairly confident it's OK. And its within the Walk-in-Run. During the day when I am not around to supervise them free ranging they will all be in the big Walk-in-Run together. How I wish I had put half inch weldmesh on that when we were constructing it, rather than the 1" stuff that I thought was OK.
All the girls 'helped' with every stage of the re-organisation but only the four goldlines went to bed where I had planned. I had to round up the other 4 from various perches and coops and put them where I thought they would be safest. All would be very much easier if they would all live together but the black rocks are tiny compared to the others and get bullied.
I'm now contemplating putting a layer of half inch chicken mesh over the 1" weldmesh but hubby says the roof will need further reinforcement if I want to do that. Maybe I'll just start with the sides. I'm so annoyed with myself.)gr:
sandy
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by sandy »

Dont be annoyed we all learn, I put extra mesh from waist height down after foxy chewed on neighbours wire but thank goodness never had stoatsyike*
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky

Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
Bridgets Mum
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Bridgets Mum »

Well, I'm now into my new chicken keeping routine and its working fine. The girls have to be locked up at night, either in the small coop with a little attached run or in the big henny house. I'm only letting them out about 8:30 in the morning and they seem to be accepting that. I could let them out earlier but their surroundings are very quiet and I'm worried that Mr Stoat and family might stage an early morning attack. I had looked in to getting an automatic door opener but then realised that I didn't want them out before people were around. They're laying really well although I suppose that's no real indicator of how happy they are with their lives.
To add insult to injury they are currently being wormed and so aren't allowed to free range and stuff themselves with bugs. The hopeful rush for the door every time I go in the run is worse than the January sales. We're only on day two and are counting the days until next Wednesday when the local worm population had better watch out. On a happier note (for me) I have tidied up the muck heap and can at least have that neat while the girls are in confinement.
Thomassio
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Thomassio »

Bridget's mum, I would love to hear your chicken call!
Bridgets Mum
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Bridgets Mum »

Thomassio wrote: Bridget's mum, I would love to hear your chicken call!

Can you imagine Joyce Grenfell yodelling?
Bridgets Mum
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Bridgets Mum »

The chickens have had a busy day......
First there were a lot of pea greens to be dealt with
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Then most of them decided to check what the human members of the flock were doing. This is Florence and Torah
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Then finally, big excitement, they had a neighbour's chicken for a sleepover. She'd hopped through the fence and spent the day with us. Then when she tried to get home to bed, she was locked out of her run. It was so sad to see her walking around the perimeter and checking the popholes and doors. Don't know where her humans were but she came when I called and is spending the night with us. Sadly no picture of her (haven't got parental permission!)
Bridgets Mum
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Bridgets Mum »

Or even....
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sandy
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by sandy »

Hmmm I think you should let the 'intruder' stay, possession being 9 tenths of the law and why had her human not done a head count!
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky

Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
Bridgets Mum
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by Bridgets Mum »

Don't know about the head count Sandy; only the two little bantams survived the stoat/mink/whatever attack so the head count shouldn't be too arduous. I haven't actually seen the other bantam for a few days either.
I let LBH (Little Black Hen) out of my run this morning before I released my gang. She hung around for a little chat then headed over to her own run (on the left of the photo) and checked again that she was still locked out. She's the little black blob under the apple tree on the photo.
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Obviously the run was still locked so she came back and probably spent most of the day under the bushes outside my run.
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I came home late afternoon and let my girls out for a few hours. Most of them are sort of OK with LBH although I still wouldn't like to have them all together in a confined area. Here she is on the edge of the flock.
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Possibly you can make out that there is a rather evident line between her neck and body feathers. She has quite a big bald patch there where stoaty whipped out a lot of her feathers. She's an amazing survivor and has come through two fox attacks that I know of.
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She'd just gone out of shot here but she obviously enjoyed the security of being with other hens and joined them on a few mini adventures and forays to the muck heap.
I was out with the girls from about 6:30 until dark and we went through the same scenario as yesterday - at dusk she checked on her own run (no sign of the other bantam) then returned to the side of my run. I put my girls to bed and popped her into the run. It was full dark when I finally left chicken world (Florence and Esmeralda think they are owls) and no one came looking for her. Investigations are required.
sandy
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Re: Bridget's Mum's Fabulous Flock

Post by sandy »

Naughty human owner, keep her)t'
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky

Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/

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