Jackie has been keeping me updated on Bluebells progress. Bluebell went into the coop at bedtime by herself, both on the first night and again last night. I was really pleased by this and think away from the influence of Pepper and Dotty she will go in on her own from now on.
Bluebell also laid her egg both mornings and has appeared to be quite content. Bonnie shouted on the first morning for a few hours but Jackie said it was quiet after that and quiet the next morning.
Jackie intends to start integrating at the weekend when both herself and her husband are at home.
My flock is so much quieter without Bluebell and there has been no shouting. I did notice yesterday that Dotty had a small spot of blood on her comb just above her beak so Topaz must have given her a peck through the wire.
Everything has been calm today though and they all seem fine and not taking any notice of each other but I know that will probably all change when they are allowed to mix. I too will wait until the weekend when I have more time. In fact it may have to wait until Sunday as we are seeing family Saturday morning and friends Saturday afternoon.
Sparkle laid an egg for the first two days, missed a day, then laid again today. Topaz is still practising. Topaz looks like she would love to come out and join the other girls but Sparkle is taking no notice.
Sparkle
Topaz
Sparkle
Topaz
Topaz is definitely the feisty one and the one we may have most trouble integrating. Sparkle constantly has her head in the food dish and she likes to sit on the coop roof.
Its also interesting that after Bluebell, Dotty the next bottom big girl, was the next to get a peck on her comb so must have had some confrontation with Topaz. Pepper who is top hen hasn’t taken any notice at all other than joining in the shouting on the first morning.
Also out of the little girls it was Honey, also bottom girl, who raised her ruff to Topaz. Luckily it didn’t go any further than that but Amber, top of those two, has also taken no notice of them.
I have come to learn from experience that it is the bottom girls that confront the newcomers as they don’t want to slide down the pecking order.
At bedtime the little girls go in the nest box and Pepper and Dotty as usual go to the coop roof. I lift them in. The new girls put themselves to bed in their coop and I just close the door.
At the moment all is calm but the fun begins when we start mixing them.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
I have the same sort of plan with your blue bell. She did have a trip around this afternoon . At the moment she is in one side of the run on her own but I shut the the old girls out while she had the whole run to herself this afternoon. For at least two hours. It gave her a chance to suss it all out while the others were away.
There is no shouting or screaming now from Bonny so is all peaceful.
Tomorrow I will do the same.
Carol you are right . The one who will probably size upto to her will be bluebell my bottom chick.
It should be an interesting weekend . My sim is to get your Bluebell sleeping in the big coup with the old girls and to be sitting on their log with them with the sun on her.
It sounds like it is going really well and I love the idea of her eventually sitting on their log in the sun.
I feel at least we are going through this together, you with your lot and me with my lot. At least the shouting was just a morning for us both although that is quite bad enough when it’s going on. I am feeling really positive about everything.
I talked to Steve about it this morning and he was surprised but thought it a good idea. I suddenly got a lump in my throat and couldn’t talk for a minute but I know this is best all around and there is no where I would rather her be than with you.
If Steve is reading this , I am hopefully a good chicken mum but not quite so hands on than Carol …Bluebell will put herself herself to bed!
Steve will agree with you that is the best way, he says I spoil them and have trained them to rely on me to put them to bed. I certainly never meant to, it just seemed to happen. At least now it is just Pepper and Dotty. I am so pleased that Bluebell goes to bed by herself now. It will all be good, I am sure of that.
There’s no way I would be putting them to bed if they were my chickens I can tell you that much! Now you just need to come round and the other 2 how to go to bed by themselves!
I have been wondering if I can retrain them somehow. I wondered if I could somehow block them form the coop roof, don’t know how though.
Razor wire on the roof? 🙂
You could try some kind of netting from the coop roof to the ceiling of the run. Hopefully after a week or so they would just give up.
I did think that any material over the coop roof that made it a difficult to perch might work. It’s only the pointed bit of the coop that needs to be difficult to perch on. I will give it some thought.