An entire day together

Yesterday being Saturday, and no functions, was the ideal day to put the girls together for their first whole day. I put them together at eleven o’clock once my chores were done.

My main worry is that the new girls can’t get to the food dishes when they are mixed. I don’t really want to have a feeding station in the run but decided that for now it is the only option. I set up a dish of mash (as it doesn’t get flicked out like pellets) and a dish of water on the small wooden block. This part of the run stays dry now that it has a solid roof and it’s near the ladders for an easy escape.

Of course the original flock were straight on to it. Anything new has got to be better than what they are used to and I knew the new girls would have to wait for the novelty to wear off before they would get a look in.

I set up a new feeding station

The original girls loved it

Cinnamon and Dandelion found safety here

And Apricot here

Then something amazing happened

Rusty and Apricot have their heads in the dish together!

This was my photo of the day. I was blown away by this. Perhaps there is hope after all. The main flock stayed in this area as it was where the sun was so the new girls stayed on the ladder.

Once the main flock moved to the other area I lifted the new girls down to the food station.

New girls at the new feeding station

A chance at the mash but not for long

Unfortunately it wasn’t long before Rusty spotted them and chased them back to the ladder. They know the food is here now though so I think they will return when the coast is clear.

I checked back a bit later and was amazed to see most of the girls together in the sun. Freckles was in the nest box and Emerald was having a dust bath but Peaches, Barley and Speckles were sitting at the bottom of the ladder and Rusty and the new girls were on different rungs of the ladder. I took some photos but unfortunately there was a blip with the camera and the photos didn’t appear.

I went back to try again but Speckles had joined Emerald in a dust bath and Peaches and Barley had moved a bit further away from the ladder. I did manage to get the little girls snoozing on the ladder though.

Sitting in the sun together

Four little girls snoozing on the ladder

Rusty on the bottom, Dandelion next with her head under her wing, then Cinnamon then Apricot at the top.

A little later, once Freckles had laid her egg, all five little girls were perched together. This was quite a heartwarming sight.

Five little girls together

We have had the new girls a month now and I feel that they are going to have to get used to being together because it is time to move this forward. Cinnamon is no longer looking stressed and now that they have become confident with getting up and down the ladders I am happy to leave them unattended. This is all positive so we just need to keep going with this. We are getting there at last.