The high perch at bedtime

Yesterday evening I kept popping out to see how the new girls were getting on. Earlier I had lifted Gold to the new perch and let her find her own way down in the hope that she would now know it was there.

That made no difference and like the previous night Gold was looking agitated and once again pacing the perimeter and looking upwards. I decided that they would just have to find it themselves.

The next time I checked on them both Gold and Snowflake were on the high perch and Storm was on the top of the wooden shelter looking ready to jump up. I was really pleased by this and retreated to leave them to it.

The next time I checked Storm was perched next to Gold and Snowflake was on the top of the shelter looking ready to jump up. I watched her jump up and nearly knock Storm down before she herself dropped back down. I imagined that Storm must have knocked Snowflake down earlier.

The next time I checked Gold and Storm were perched side by side but no sign of Snowflake. She wasn’t on the high perch or in their part of the run or in the little coup. I then realised that this time it was Snowflake on the main flocks’ side of the run. she must have gone over the top. She was on the chickens’ patio with the three seramas. Flame and Spot were already in the chicken shed.

Snowflake looked in one of the nest boxes and seemed to recognise it as the same as the new girls’ coup. Salmon then ran her off the patio but not in an aggressive way, just in the way that shows they are above a flock mate.

I opened the gate to the new girls’ part of the run and Snowflake ran through the gate and straight into their little coup. I think that if the other two girls weren’t so intent on perching high up Snowflake probably would go in the coup. I thought that as Snowflake was now in I may as well lift Gold and Storm down and put them in too.

I decided that another tweak was needed. I have now put a step on top of the shelter to make it easier for the new girls to get to the high perch. It’s an upturned plastic crate with a board on top. Luckily we have plenty of off cuts in the shed.

I really think this will solve the problem and that all three of them will get to the high perch tonight.

Tonight I did the same as the night before and kept checking on the new girls before bedtime. It’s as well that I did because I soon realised a further slight tweak was needed.

Gold was already on the high perch. Snowflake was trying to jump up to the perch. I had positioned the step on that end of the shelter because that was the spot that Snowflake was trying to jump from last night.

Instead of stepping on the step she was trying to jump from just in front of the step which was even more tricky as it needed a steeper jump. Of course the step is new so is not to be trusted! Suprisingly she did actually make it but it didn’t look easy and involved a lot of flapping.

Storm was unable to jump up so I went in to move the position of the step. Storm dropped back into the run and I moved the step to the other side of the shelter. This way the girls would have to step onto it when jumping from the top of the coup.

Storm jumped on to the step and easily jumped up to the perch. Phew!

It has taken a bit of tweaking to get this right but I think we are actually there now. I think these three will easily get to this perch every night now and I can go in after dusk when they are calm and lift them down and put them in their coup with minimal fuss.