Bedtime

Last night once the main flock had gone to bed I moved Sienna and Jasmine to the perch with Dandelion and Cinnamon. I am going to do this each night to try to train the silkie girls to perch there.

My reasons for this are that if the new girls perch they won’t have to compete with Sienna and Jasmine but can have the perch to themselves and if they don’t perch but huddle in the corner they won’t get pooped on.

The bigger girls are at last starting to go in on their own as the days are getting shorter and cooler.

I moved Sienna and Jasmine next to Dandelion and cinnamon

The three bigger girls had already settled in the back corner. Jasmine and Sienna moved to the end of the perch. They obviously didn’t want to be right next to Dandelion and Cinnamon.

We then herded the new girls into the chicken shed. They were not at all happy with this and kept coming back out. I resorted to putting them in their usual little coop and returned to move them once the pop hole had closed.

I picked them up one by one and put them on the perch.

I put all five new girls on the perch

A few seconds later they all jumped down and were in heap in the corner

I tried lifting them back up again but they all jumped straight back down. I think perhaps I am trying to rush things a bit so I have decided to let them settle in the corner for a while. I am sure that they will perch up when they are ready.

If I can get them to go in the chicken shed tonight without popping out again I will be happy with that. It usually takes a couple of nights for new girls to get the hang of it but I am sure it won’t take long.

I have decided to put a mix of chick crumb and growers pellets in the three dishes out in the run and a mix of growers and layers pellets in the dish on the patio area. Once the girls stop laying I will put growers in all the dishes until after the winter. By this time the new girls will be ready to go on to layers.

The new girls have already grown in confidence today and have been using the entire run and the perches. I am happy with the progress and integrations of late have been so much easier than in the past.