The rest of our first day together

I haven’t seen the new girls eat any pellets yet and wondered if this isn’t what they were used to. They had been eating the corn cob and spinach and later on a bit of apple and melon. I decided to make two dishes of mash, one for each side of the wire.

A dish of mash on each side of the wire

One of the new girls eating the mash

Bluebell and Dotty are keeping an eye on the new girls

By the afternoon I could tell one of the new girls wanted to lay her egg because up until now she had been quite happy in her area but was suddenly agitated, pacing the boundary and clucking. I realised she wouldn’t go in the cardboard nest box I had made for her because it was inside the cage and she was in no hurry to go back in there! I took the cage out and put a tray of pine shavings in the bottom of the crisp box. This worked and in she went.

New girl in the temporary nest box

Bluebell and the new girl take a good look at each other

I don’t want to keep them calling them the new girls so need to sort out who is which. One of them has some white flecks on her collar so this is Honey and the other is much more feisty so she is going to be Amber. Somehow Amber seems a more feisty name to me or Honey a more gentle name.

My husband made a divider to separate off the nest box when our girls were little and we were trying to train them out of the habit of sleeping in there. He suggested that I reinstate this at night and put the banty girls in the nest box to sleep. This would mean they would be safe from the other girls and would also mean the coop door could open automatically for the big girls and I could go out at six instead of half five. Also it would make it easier for me to pick the bantys up to move them to their area.

The main problem now is to how to get them in to the nest box. I was originally going to let all the girls out at dusk to go in to the coop but my husband is now going to be out for the evening and I am worried about letting the girls out together again while here on my own.

I am going to play it by ear a bit and see if I can catch them and put them in. The other problem is my girls like to go on the coop roof at dusk and I lift them down and put them in which adds to the difficulty. This isn’t going to be easy!

Well that wasn’t easy but everyone is now in bed. At quarter to nine I decided to put the big girls in even though they would like to stay out a bit longer as it was still a bit light. I then let the bantys out into the main part of the run and closed off their area. I cleaned their area while giving them a bit of time to roam. I think if the coop door was open they would have gone in but as it was closed they didn’t know where to go.

I caught one of them fairly easily and put her in the nest box. Then it got tricky as the other one didn’t want to be caught. I felt awful because if I have to chase her around trying to catch her I will make her scared of me but I didn’t want her to sleep out alone. I left her for  bit to see if she would choose somewhere to roost. When I went back she was on the coop roof. I lift the big girls down from there so easily but when I tried to lift her down she flew off. I left her again thinking that as it got dark it would be easier to catch her.

When I went back in she was on top of the wire of the newly sectioned off part of the run. I tried to pick her up and she jumped into the bush where I managed to grab her. I put her into the nest box. It was now quarter past nine so had taken half an hour. I feel guilty for scaring her but didn’t know what else to do.

When my husband is home with me we will try letting them find their own way in at dusk but today I had to the best I could on my own. I am not sure I handled this right but even so I am glad that they are both now safely in the nest box.

This has been quite a traumatic day. I really hope it gets easier. Tomorrow my husband is going to make a more permanent separate area with a door to it. This way we can separate this area when we need to and fold the door back when we don’t need it.

I hope I haven’t traumatised these new girls too much. I hate to think that I am letting them down by putting them through this. I will try to manage the situation better tomorrow.