This afternoon we needed disposables for our business and instead of having them delivered we decided to go and collect them so that we could check in on our re homed girls.
It was a really bright and sunny afternoon and I couldn’t see the screen on my camera so the photos aren’t great as it was a case of, point and guess, while clicking away. It gives the gist of the afternoon though.
I took a little pot of sunflower hearts to get the girls in to the open so that I could take photos.
I was thrilled to bits to see that Butterscotch had all her head feathers back in. She was back to her former glory with her bouffant hair style back in place.
Butterscotch, Dotty and Honey
Butterscotch is on the left of the group, Dotty is in the middle and Honey is on the right in the foreground. She is moulting and has lost her tail. This sight is so familiar to me.
Butterscotch is on the right
Butterscotch on the right of the photo has a full head of crest feathers. The geese are in the background and they all get along together.
Butterscotch with Claude the cockerel
Butterscotch in the middle of the photo
Butterscotch with Dotty and Honey forming a little triangle
I love the way that amongst Moira’s larger flock, she has about twenty girls, “my” girls are so together.
Dotty is at the back in the centre with Butterscotch on the right and Honey has her head down
Honey has lost her tail
Honey still gets really close to me
One of Moira’s pekin bantams
Claude the cockerel
Just as I finished taking photos Moira spotted me and came over for a chat. I told her how pleased I was that Butterscotch was looking so good. Moira said that she felt that Butterscotch was enjoying the freedom of free ranging on the farm and that she was a very independent girl.
Butterscotch always was like that with us. She always did her own thing and wasn’t dependent on the rest of the flock.
This afternoon made me so happy. It proved to me that I had made the right decision. Butterscotch can now go broody in peace, enjoy free ranging and keep her head feathers as they should be. She is having a good life and looking beautiful again.
I am so glad that we paid the girls a visit today and I am glad that we waited long enough to see Butterscotch back to her former glory.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
How lovely to see photos of your erstwhile girls. Butterscotch looks magnificent, so you’ll feel really vindicated by your decision. It looks like a wonderful set-up for poultry. Honey in the moult will be a spectacle you’re only too familiar with – in hen terms, I suppose she’s quite an old lady now. It must have been an uplifting visit, with everything going well on all fronts! 🙂
It was lovely to see them so happy. I had Dotty five years ago and she has been at the farm for just over two years now and Honey from April this year and Butterscotch from August this year. Honey is about four years old. For bantams that’s not a bad age. It is a lovely set up.
I am so happy to see them having a good life. Moira asked how my flock is now and for me it was the best thing to be able to say that they are all happy and no plucking. I am the happiest I have been for a long time with the flock. I can manage integration teething troubles as long as there is no plucking. It is all going really well at the moment and I think smaller girls are good for my set up. For their size the run is huge.
My husband commented that even in Moira’s huge free range farm the chickens can always be found in the same space, in the meadow. They don’t actually wander very far. They keep themselves to a similar space to what we have but one of the differences is that there is loads of grass.
I am so glad that I am lucky enough to be able to visit and Moira has become another good chicken friend.
It is so good to see all three girls together, and looking really happy, you certainly did the right thingletting them go. and to see Butterscotch not plucked is wonderful.
I was thrilled to see Butterscotch with her head feathers back again. It made me certain that I had done the right thing as she hadn’t had feathers with us for nearly a year and has only been at the farm for seven weeks and has head feathers again. There has also been no further plucking in our flock so I know that although it was a difficult decision it was definitely the right decision.