Last night I decided to have another session of getting the girls together. Despite digging over both sides of the run, the big girls went straight into the bantys side as soon as I opened the gate. The earth is much better for scratching on that side as it doesn’t compact so quickly. With the big girls and myself constantly walking over it, the ground soon gets compacted whereas the little girls don’t make much impression on their side.
The big girls were having a lovely time scratching so I decided that although I would rather they all mixed on the other side where there is more space, I would just let them do it their way. The bantys would move towards the big girls and Bluebell would run at them so that they quickly backed away again.
I was quite pleased that it seemed less aggressive. Bluebell seemed happy to just run at the little girls instead of pecking them. Pepper and Dotty were so engrossed with their scratching that they weren’t taking much notice of the bantys, Dotty would just run at them occasionally. Bluebell drank some of their water and ate some of their pellets then had a look in their coop. Every now and again she would run at them and seemed happy that their response was to run into the corner. The bantys weren’t vocally complaining though, just keeping out of the way.
When it was near bedtime I encouraged the big girls back into their own side and the bedtime preening commenced. Soon after that they all made their way to bed. This was a lot less stressful and I am feeling really pleased with the progress.
Click here to see the history of my flock.