An update on my flock

My girls are looking beautiful after their moult. The only thing left now is for Peaches and Barley’s combs to get big and red again in the spring. All the girl’s feathers are stunning though.

I am going to put out some portraits that I have taken over the last couple of days in their pecking order.

Topaz

Topaz has always remained firmly at the top of the pecking order. She keeps all the girls in order and none of them dare to contest her.

I think she is getting ready to lay again. She has been very vocal and has been checking out the nest box. I know she has been in them because only Butterscotch is laying at the moment and she doesn’t disturb the shavings but just settles on top of them. Lately though the boxes have had deep wells in them with shavings scratched down the ramp and Topaz has had tell tale shavings on her fluffy bottom.

Honey

Honey is second in command and is our eldest girl at three years of age. This actually shows on her now as she is plumper than she used to be and sits down more often. Recently all the girls were stood in a close group and Honey was the only one sitting down, right in the middle of them.

Butterscotch

Butterscotch used to be below Peaches and Barley in the pecking order but she seems to have gradually worked her way up and I think she is now above them. She is full of confidence and only Topaz and Honey ever give her a peck these days to keep her in her place.

She is still laying at the moment but no doubt will go broody again soon. She is always last to bed at night. The other girls all go to roost about half an hour before the automatic door shuts but Butterscotch will still be casually drifting around from the food dish to the water to the grit, to peck at the shavings and back again, then suddenly she decides it’s time to go in and briskly marches to the shed and straight up to the perch about ten minutes before the door closes.

Jackie noticed yesterday that her beak has a blue tinge similar to the blue of her lobes. I looked back at older photos of her and realised that her beak had always had a blue tinge but I hadn’t really noticed it before.

Toffee

Since Toffee’s moult she has some feathers around her neck with a slightly green sheen to them. One of Toffee’s characteristics is that every day when the treat of corn or sunflower hearts runs out she makes a real sound of complaint. As soon as we hear this sound we know the corn has all gone. She marches around complaining for a few minutes and does this without fail every day.

Emerald

Emerald has such beautiful glossy, shimmering feathers. This pose with one foot on the food dish is very typical of her. One of her habits is to come and scratch in the shavings every morning when I poop pick the shed. It’s as if the open door is just too tempting for her. Every morning I end up scooping a pile of shavings back into the shed. As soon as I hear the scratching behind my back I know that it will be Emerald.

Peaches and Barley

Peaches and Barley are absolutely inseparable so I had to take their portrait together, Peaches is on the left and Barley on the right. They do everything together and I have been taking photos of them during the last week to do a post on their total togetherness. If we ever lost one of these girls it would be a terrible shock to the one left.

They are constantly chatting or “squeaking” as I call it. They still love to jump on my back if ever I bend over and ride on my back while I clean up the run.

Speckles

At last Speckles is no longer nervous around me but she is still wary of the other girls as she is firmly bottom girl. The only one she has no fear of is Toffee and Toffee will run from her. Speckles seemed to sense early on that Toffee is a nervous sort of a girl too and while she remains above the flock mates that have never contested her place in the pecking order she never managed to put Speckles in a place below her. I am glad that Speckles has one girl that isn’t above her as she takes some stick from the rest of them. She is very speedy though and manages to get out of the way.

So there we have our beautiful eight girls and all of them so full of character and with their own funny little ways. I am so happy with how lovely our flock are together.