Day two with the new girls

This morning I went out at quarter to six and lifted the bantys out of the nest box and into their area. They definitely don’t like being picked up but once in their area they were fine.

Later on in the day all the girls were enjoying a dust bath.

Afternoon dust bath in the sun

The bantys were also having a dust bath in the sun on their side of the wire but as soon as  I go near them they retreat to the bush so I wasn’t able to get a photo. They think of me as the person who keeps grabbing them and don’t want to come near me. It is going to take a while to gain their confidence.

This afternoon my husband worked on improving the separation area. We have made it more permanent now and he has made a gate so that I can easily get in and out. We are thinking it might be useful to be able to keep an area separated for when needed and the door can be left open for when it’s not needed.

We had to remove the umbrella and the ladder for now but we can always put it back in later if we want to.

The separated area

The bantys are in the patch of sun behind the bush.

The new gate

My husband has also devised a way of covering this area during wet weather. He is going to put some batons on the roof beams then use some corrugated perspex strips to slide down these batons. This means we can put them on when needed and remove them during dry weather. This is a job for tomorrow.

My friend Jackie came to inspect the new girls this afternoon and she thought they were lovely and reassured me that everything is normal and will be fine given time.

By the late afternoon the bantys seemed more confidant.

We are all interested in each ohter

Getting braver

We went out at quarter to nine, just before dusk and let the bantys out of their area, shutting the gate so that they couldn’t go back in. One of them went into the coop but when the other one didn’t, she came back out. The big girls went up on to the coop roof as usual and the bantys then joined them. We were pleasantly surprised that there was no real aggression with just Dotty (our middle girl) giving a quick peck now and again.

I attached the divider to the nest box and then lifted our girls down and put them in the coop just as the door was shutting.

I then slowly and gently picked up one of the bantys from the coop roof and put her in the nest box. This was only ever going to work for one of them and the other flew off. With two of us out there we managed to catch her within about ten minutes and put her in the nest box.

I am really pleased by how well that went. Now we have a gate on the bantys area, I can just take the nest box off in the morning, put it in their area and let them out, instead of picking them up again.

I feel that we are really making good progress now and am feeling much more confidant about the whole process. I think we may put them together a little earlier tomorrow and see how that works. It’s been a good day today and it’s only day two after all.