A much better day

What a difference a day makes! Today the new girls were behaving like chickens. They were keen to get out and explore their space.

Today the new girls explored their space

I bought another water bottle with a bigger hole as I was a bit worried that the new girls were having to work too hard to get the water. It turned out that Freckles liked the bigger bottle and Rusty preferred the smaller one so I am happy that they have a choice now.

I have also given them a mix of chick crumb and growers pellets which I have made smaller by grinding them in a pestle and mortar. I have sprinkled some on the tile in front of their dish to help direct them.

At lunch time I put Pebbles in with them again. To my surprise she went straight to their water bottle. I wonder if she remembers this from when she was a chick. She was more than happy with their food too and she checked out their little coop.

Pebbles tries the water bottle

I opened up the bigger half of the run and the new girls went exploring.

The new girls find the open hatch

They explore the bigger part of the run

They head towards the ladder with an audience on the other side of the wire

All the bigger girls were lined up, watching the little girls with interest.

They explore to the end of the run

Pebbles checks on them

The three of them were fine together. At the end of the day I put Pebbles back on the other side to go to bed in the chicken shed.

Tomorrow afternoon I will switch sides with Pebbles and the new girls on the other side of the run so that the new girls can get familiar with the other side. I think we are ready to move on fairly quickly but we are also very busy this week so we will have to do it in stages when we are at home to watch over them.

We need to leave tomorrow at seven o’clock in the morning for a breakfast delivery and we have a wedding at the weekend to cater for and to wash up from afterwards (afternoon tea on our vintage crockery). I will try to do the integration in between when we are at home. I am confidant that we can move this on quite quickly as there have been no signs of aggression but we also need to fit it in around our work.

I would love to have less work and more chicken time but I must do the best I can within the time I have. I feel this integration will be better moving fairly quickly as I could tell that Freckles wanted to be on the other side at bedtime tonight. I think they will settle together sooner rather than later. I am quite optimistic that they will all be together quite soon.