Mid morning I looked out of the window and saw April perching on the bottom rung of the ladder. Later in the day I saw her on the ladder several times. She has now got the hang of perching. What a clever little girl she is.
A bit later Freckles was in the nest box and the main flock were dust bathing together. Apricot was dust bathing on the other side of the wire, opposite Rusty. They then had one of their friendly beak to beak moments. We really think that Apricot is ready to join the main flock.
Dust bathing on both sides of the wire
Is this friendship!
These two little girls are often like mirror images of each other. I think they are ready to become friends.
Freckles laid her fourth egg today, so far she is laying every other day.
Tomorrow afternoon I should have more time as at the moment I have no lunches booked for the next day. My plan is that after lunch I will switch the two flocks to the opposite sides to give the new girls a chance to explore the other side.
An hour before bedtime I will switch them back but will leave Apricot with the main flock while I stay to supervise and see how she gets on. I will then put her back on the new girl’s side for bedtime. It will be interesting to see if she is accepted by the main flock. If all goes well I will try integrating her at the weekend.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Looking forward to see how it goes, They look so alike, Can you see a diffrence a
between them?
They are alike and Richard thinks this may fool the flock into accepting her. I can see a lot of difference though. Apricot is a lighter colour and she has more black in her wings and tail and some black on her head whereas Rusty has some white on her head. Her comb is also much smaller and paler at the moment. There are moments when her stance totally reminds me of Rusty though and it’s funny that she is equally as fixated on my hands.
I think that I have read somewhere that hens recognise each other by their faces – comb size and type and wattles, I suppose: doubt the others would ever confuse Apricot and Rusty. Will look forward to hearing how it has gone. Best of luck!
I too seriously doubt the others would ever confuse Apricot and Rusty. I think they are much more capable of telling each other apart than we are when they look very alike.