I have talked recently of how sometimes the flock seems to divide into two parts of bigger girls together and little girls together. There are other times when the flock are very definitely all together.
The weather has recently made the flock stick very closely together. First there was the snow which when it settled on the chicken run roof it made the run quite dark.
The entire flock formed a very close bunch in front of the large wooden shelter. This spot had the most light as the light came through the weld mesh at the side of the hatch. The girls didn’t move far from this spot.
On the second day, with the snow still settled, there was blue sky and sunshine. The entire flock perched on the branch perch above the ladder where it gets the sun at this time of the year.
After three days of the snow being settled it disappeared after a night of rain. It has rained every day since. This morning while I was cleaning the chicken shed it bucketed with rain. This is quite noisy on the chicken shed roof.
I looked to see where the girls were and the entire flock were inside the large wooden shelter or standing just in front of it. I didn’t have my camera with me though. The three bigger girls were perched inside the shelter. The little girls were either perched in the shelter or standing just inside and a couple of them were standing in front of the shelter.
It always amuses me to see the flock go to the shelter when it rains because the run is roofed and it is dry at the top end of the run. I think it is the sound of the rain on the roof that sends them in to the shelter when it rains heavily.
What is endearing though is that in any kind of odd weather the girls form a very close unit. At these times they are very much one flock.
The day the girls all perched together in the sun I took a photo from outside of the run in case they jumped down once I went through the gate. I kept this photo because it shows Flame who was at the back and not easy to spot in my photos from inside the run.
It warms my heart to see the girls together like this.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Beautiful girls! Has Marmite managed to get between the two newest girls?
xx
The two newest girls are together on the right hand side of the photo from inside the run. The order from the nearest point is : Spangle, Marmite, Salmon, Speckles, Ebony, Smoke, Sugar, Shadow and Flame on the top rung of the ladder just behind Ebony and Smoke. However Shadow and Sugar are not quite so joined at the hip as they used to be. Although they still spend a lot of time together they are also more confidant at being apart too. They are often next to Marmite at bedtime as she is next bottom girl and doesn’t peck, unlike some, particularly Smoke.
A lovely picture of the flock.
They are a lovely flock aren’t they!
It is lovely when they get a bit of winter sun.
I love to see them get some winter sun but unfortunately there has been no more sun since that day. I am really fed up of the cold and wet and can’t wait for better weather.
I love that first picture with the sun shining from behind them – Spangle looks like an angel chicken ? Desperate for some more sun here – only had one day of it in about the last 2 weeks and I’m fed up of gloom and rain.
Same here. We have only had that one sunny day in two weeks and the photos from this post and the previous post were taken at different times on that same day. With so little to post about I split my sunny photos into two posts as most days are so gloomy that it doesn’t make for good photos. I am really fed up with so much rain. Roll on spring!