At last the hens have arrived and are settling in, or at least that's the plan.
On Saturday, we drove to a poultry farm in Scarborough (www.traditionalpigs.com - they do sell chickens, honest). We'd already placed an order for two Rhode Island Red x Light Sussex (aka Gingernut Ranger) but on arrival at the farm, the poor farmer had to explain that a fox had killed about twenty of his chickens a couple of days earlier (including our two!). Anyway, he kindly selected two alternatives (a Maran hybrid who we've named Sunflower and a White Star we've called Blossom). We brought them home in a cardboard box in the boot of our car.
We were told to keep them in the run for the first few days so they could acclimatise to their new surroundings, but we've had to let them out into the garden a bit sooner than planned but more of that in a minute...
To cut to the chase, Blossom, the White star, is mercilessly bullying poor little Sunflower (I say 'little' in a metaphorical way) and it's awful to watch. She attacks her both in and out of the Eglu (http://www.omlet.co.uk/) pecking at her, pulling out feathers, denying her food and water and generally being a right nasty piece of work. I'm assured that this is normal, but it's not nice. We've had to resort to pasting Sunflower in a substance called Stockholm Tar (nasty, sticky, gooey black tar) which is supposed to put the offender off biting. Well, it's worked to a degree, but we've had them four days now and the attacks are still happening, although perhaps slightly less since we started letting the pair of them free range.
The plan now is to see what happens in the next few days and if there's no improvement, the poultry farmer has offered to swap the White Star for an alternative (hopefully friendlier) chicken. Could Blossom's days be numbered? It would be a shame to swap her in some ways as she's given us an egg every day since she arrived!
On a more positive note, the seedlings which I planted last weekend are showing signs of life (at least there's one sunflower peeping through the soil). The tomatoes, basil and chillies are still lying dormant, but hopefully the warmer weather might tempt them out.
On Saturday, we drove to a poultry farm in Scarborough (www.traditionalpigs.com - they do sell chickens, honest). We'd already placed an order for two Rhode Island Red x Light Sussex (aka Gingernut Ranger) but on arrival at the farm, the poor farmer had to explain that a fox had killed about twenty of his chickens a couple of days earlier (including our two!). Anyway, he kindly selected two alternatives (a Maran hybrid who we've named Sunflower and a White Star we've called Blossom). We brought them home in a cardboard box in the boot of our car.
We were told to keep them in the run for the first few days so they could acclimatise to their new surroundings, but we've had to let them out into the garden a bit sooner than planned but more of that in a minute...
To cut to the chase, Blossom, the White star, is mercilessly bullying poor little Sunflower (I say 'little' in a metaphorical way) and it's awful to watch. She attacks her both in and out of the Eglu (http://www.omlet.co.uk/) pecking at her, pulling out feathers, denying her food and water and generally being a right nasty piece of work. I'm assured that this is normal, but it's not nice. We've had to resort to pasting Sunflower in a substance called Stockholm Tar (nasty, sticky, gooey black tar) which is supposed to put the offender off biting. Well, it's worked to a degree, but we've had them four days now and the attacks are still happening, although perhaps slightly less since we started letting the pair of them free range.
The plan now is to see what happens in the next few days and if there's no improvement, the poultry farmer has offered to swap the White Star for an alternative (hopefully friendlier) chicken. Could Blossom's days be numbered? It would be a shame to swap her in some ways as she's given us an egg every day since she arrived!
On a more positive note, the seedlings which I planted last weekend are showing signs of life (at least there's one sunflower peeping through the soil). The tomatoes, basil and chillies are still lying dormant, but hopefully the warmer weather might tempt them out.
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