Mash and surprises

Yesterday mid morning I decided to give the girls some mash. I was worried that the little girls may not get enough pellets while competing with the big girls, although there are three dishes of pellets, so they should be able to. It’s just that I always worry.

I made it in the usual bigger dish for the big girls and ramekin for the little girls. Why did I think they were likely to stick with their own dishes?

Two dishes of mash

Bluebell has her own dish

At least while Bluebell has a dish to herself she isn’t hassling the little girls.

Mix and match

Next time I will just put two dishes of the same size, side by side. They love the mash so much that they don’t squabble too much and the bantys were able to get their share.

When they had finished, Dotty went straight into the nest box to lay her egg. The bantys pottered around but Bluebell and Pepper went into what was the bantys area and sat down.

Rest and digest

I find it quite amusing that Bluebell sits with her tail straight up, while Pepper has her tail down and looks quite flattened!

Resting together

The bantys didn’t seem to need a rest. I guess Dotty took her rest in the nest box and when I checked a while later she had laid her egg.

When I got back at lunch time Bluebell had also laid and Pepper was in the nest box and had soon laid her egg as well. Honey was in the little coop so hopefully is at last getting the hang of laying in the right place.

An hour later when I checked again, Honey was still in the coop. I went back a bit later and she was out but hadn’t laid an egg. I don’t think she has got into the swing of this yet.

Several times yesterday Amber went into the big nest box. She had made a well in the centre so it looks like she is ready to start laying soon. It’s funny that Honey has chosen their little coop to practice in (she’s only managed to actually lay one out of five eggs in there) and Amber has chosen the big girls nest box.

When I went back to do my pre bedtime clean up, I was most surprised to find the tiniest little egg in the run. I can only imagine that it is Ambers first egg as Honey has laid five normal banty sized eggs.

The tiny egg

Bluebells egg on the right and the tiny egg on the left

The tiny egg sat on a fifty pence piece

I haven’t got a normal banty egg to compare this one to as we have recently eaten them (and very nice they are too, mostly yolk and very little white), but I will save this and compare it with a normal banty egg when we next get one. I will also do an update on the inside of this egg once I have cracked it. It is cute, smaller than a quails egg. It looks like I will soon have all five girls laying and an abundance of eggs.

When I went back in at dusk to get the girls to bed I got another surprise as all five girls had settled on the coop roof. There was one banty on either side of the big girls. I decided to try my luck at putting them all in the same coop. I picked up the nearest banty and put her in. I then picked up the three big girls and put them in. I couldn’t pick up the second banty as she quickly flew off.

I now had a dilemma, do I leave one banty in the big girls coop and let one banty sleep alone in the little coop, do I remove one banty from the big girls coop and put her in the little girls coop with her mate or do I try to move the banty from the little coop to join her mate in the big coop. I decided that the last option may be a way of speeding up the integration process. This was sooner than I had planned on doing this!

I first lifted the roof of the little coop and tried to pick up the banty but she was too quick for me and flew out. I waited until she returned to the little coop and this time reached in through the door and grabbed her. I put her in the big coop but felt a bit bad about having to grab her. I looked in through the nest box, with the torch pointed at the ground, and they had all settled on one perch together.

Maybe it would be good for them to all sleep together. My only worry was, would they be okay together in the morning. I decided that as soon as I woke up I would go out and check on them.

This morning I went out to at quarter to five as I thought this was about the time that the automatic coop door would open. I think it had just opened as by the time I had got half way up the garden all five girls came running towards me. They seemed fine together so we have progressed again, more quickly than I was expecting. I wonder what they will do tonight!