Two out of three new girls

On Tuesday, I was expecting my three new girls between 3.30 and 6.30 pm. At 5.30 pm the lady I had been in contact with arrived with two modern game girls. She said that her partner had loaded the van for her and by mistake had put in a gold laced wyandotte instead of the gold pencilled wyandotte I had been waiting for.

She said that for now she would leave me with the two game girls and that her partner would be delivering near by next Thursday and would bring me the gold pencilled wynandotte then.

I had closed off the corner part of the run ready for the new girls with a little coop and feeding station and we put them in their new quarters.

Unfortunately a few days ago my camera had developed a problem. It would now only take photos indoors or in the evening at low light levels. During the bright parts of the day the photos were all coming out really dark, almost black. This was frustrating just as I was getting new girls. We asked our friend across the road, who is a lot more technical than we are, to have a look at the camera for us and despite trying every setting we couldn’t resolve the problem.

I then went to a near by electrical store to see if I could buy a new camera but was told that they don’t stock them as every thing is on line these days. I had to resort to ordering a new camera on line. The camera arrived on the day that the new girls arrived but I could see that it would take time to get used to the set up of a new camera and would take a bit of time to learn how to get the photos to my computer and then to my blog.

I decide to take photos of the new girls at dusk with the old camera so that I could practise with the new camera over the next few days. This is why this blog post is a bit delayed and the photos are less than perfect.

I decide to name the silver/salmon modern game girl Cloud and the gold/salmon modern game girl Mango.

They spent their time on top of the shelter as that was obviously where they felt safe so I put a dish of mash there for them. I started it off with a layer of water on top so that they would get water and food at the same time. I was pleased that they drank the water then ate some of the mash.

At dusk they were sitting on top of the shelter and I moved them to the little coop and closed them in for the night.

Wednesday morning I went out early to open the little coup and the new girls found the feeding station straight away and had pellets and water so I was happy.

Around mid day Cloud went into the coop/nest box and started scratching around just like Storm does when about to lay an egg. I thought to myself that it seemed very much like she was about to lay. I had thought that Cloud had a big, red comb. Another surprise to me has been that these two girls have red combs whereas Storm’s comb is black/purple.

I checked back a little later and at first Mango was sitting at the edge of the ramp and then she moved to sitting in the box with Cloud as if keeping her company. I lifted the lid to see what was going on just as Cloud was in the egg laying position and I saw her lay her first egg.

I hadn’t realised the game girls were already at point of lay and was surprised to get an egg so soon. A perfect little egg.

A little later Sugar went into a nest box and managed to lay an egg with a good shell. A day of surprises! Sugar’s egg was just a little bigger than Cloud’s and had a normal shell.

So I have had a change of plan. Now I know that the game girls are older than I thought and at point of lay I have switched the growers pellets for layers pellets and decided to integrate these two girls as soon as possible.

My plan is to mix the new girls with the flock straight away and when the wyandotte arrives I will put her in the separate corner of the run and will put Salmon in with her to keep her company. As Salmon hasn’t laid last year or this year she will be okay on growers pellets. She can spend her days with the new girl but I will let her join the flock before bedtime so that she can perch in the chicken shed.

With this in mind I mixed the flock for an hour in the afternoon. It went quite well with the flock not taking too much notice of the new girls. I encouraged them to the patio area to explore and they pretty much explored the whole run. I then put them back in their part of the run to make sure they had some some food and water in peace.

At bedtime they didn’t find their way in to the little coop/nest box but instead were by the gate as if they wanted to be with the main flock. I put them in but decided that maybe tomorrow they would be ready to join the flock in the chicken shed.

It’s been a busy day and things are moving faster than I expected but I am happy with the progress so far.