Bedtime

I am frustrated at the moment with the bedtime routine. For a while it was all going smoothly with all the girls getting in before the automatic door closed.

Recently some of the girls, usually the amigos, have been getting shut out. Dandelion, Cinnamon and the silky girls always go in in plenty of time. Mostly Ebony and Flame are in in time and sometimes Speckles is too but the amigos are now getting shut out most nights.

The problem is that they are leaving it too late to go in. There is no point altering the sensor on the automatic door as it is almost dark when it closes and by then it’s already too dark for the amigos to get to their perch without the help of a torch or me lifting them to the perch.

I don’t understand why they are leaving it so late as previous girls used to be perched nearly an hour before the door shut. The amigos leave it right until the last minute and are now regularly getting caught out.

My husband had an idea to help them to the perch once they did go in. He suggested that instead of the torch I could reinstate the light that he had bought me to help with poop picking on dark mornings. I tried it this evening and it was a total failure. It’s back to the torch from now on.

The girls were all in apart from the amigos once more. I pinned open the door and switched on the light. The amigos have now learned that they can enter the shed through the main door. Vanilla was first to work out that if the bigger girls went through then she could too. Once she was confident going through the door the rest of the amigos followed. Marmite was the last to catch on but even she has now got the hang of it.

Anyway once the light was on all the other girls jumped down from the back perch and started scratching in the shavings. The amigos made no attempt to perch but also scratched in the shavings. The light was obviously giving out too much light and the entire flock decided that it was play time.

I switched off the light and replaced the torch on the floor and the girls jumped back to the back perch again. I then pointed the torch towards the amigos’ perch and they jumped up with me helping the last couple of girls up.

Ebony about to lead the perching girls down once I have switched the light on.

Cinnamon looks rather squashed in the corner.

Finally the amigos are in place

The rest of the girls perched in their new positions

Dandelion and Cinnamon have put plenty of space between them and the silky girls. They really don’t like perching with the silky girls. In the first photo they are on the opposite side to them and in this one they have just left a big gap.

A final check on the amigos

I always wait outside for a few minutes and then check again to make sure that all the girls are still perched.

It’s not a problem at the moment as I am here to check on them but it does mean that I wouldn’t be confident of being away over night. It is frustrating that they seem to have lost the ability to get themselves in in time and I don’t how to teach them to go in earlier.

I may try to shepherd them in earlier and see that if helps. I am not holding my breath though!