Although our flock of nine girls get on together very well and are often all together there are also times when they are a flock of two parts.
Sometimes the three bigger girls will be perched together while the smaller girls are hanging out together elsewhere.
This perch is Flame’s favourite perch and very often if she is missing from the flock I will find her here but at other times Ebony and Speckles will keep her company.
This perch recently rotted at the ends and fell down. Because it is the very favourite perch we rescued it. My lovely husband cut the ends off and nailed it back in place. Despite being a bit shorter it still remains the favourite perch so it was worth saving.
I love to see the bigger girls hanging out together.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
It’s funny how they have their favourite perches! I thought Speckles liked to hang out with the little girls more often – has that changed?
No, no change with Speckles. Speckles mostly hangs out with the little girls but also hangs out with Ebony and Flame when they are perched up. Speckles is the only girl with a foot in each camp as it were. Perhaps it’s to do with her being with the flock longest and being top girl or maybe it’s her amenable nature. She is also the only bigger girl with an attachment to me.
Your girls are so lucky, we see so many people who have hens, and they are in a tiny run on the grownd with just the nest boxes, when it is wet I feel so sorry for them, and in the chicken farms where they have no perches. It is lovely to see your girls, so happy.
I feel bad enough when the bottom part of the run gets wet because the rain blows in but the top part always stays dry because of the solid fence and that is where the girls have their dust baths. They also love the shelters to be inside or on top of as well as all their perches. I love to see my girls happy.
Sometimes, it’s an age thing, which can lead to girls, often of different breeds, hanging out together. At the start of lockdown, I re-opened a hen house I had not had in use for over a year; within a week, most of the older girls have gravitated to go and perch in it for the night. They say bird of a feather flock together, which I do believe, but it’s also girls of an age flock together, I think.
That’s interesting. Speckles is of course the eldest but Ebony and Flame are the next eldest. The three bigger girls always go in the chicken shed in plenty of time at the end of the day but most of the little girls don’t. They leave it much later and at the moment I am still leaving the door ajar for them and then closing it when they are all in. I will continue to do this until the weather gets warmer as I would prefer them to go in rather than be shut out and then I have to get them in. This way I just have to check they are in and close the door. It makes a nonsense of the automatic door but I hope that when the days get longer they will get back to going in, in time, once more.