Pecking order

We are now the happy owners of 16 new laying hens. Our surviving six hens are not so impressed with the new additions, but it seems the pecking order is getting sorted. No blood shed as yet and only a few ruffled feathers. We collected them late evening, long after the sun had set, when they are at their most docile and transported them home in a large cage in the back of the 4WD. By the time we finished the 30 minute drive the car reeked of bird poo and the hens had finally stopped squawking. The quiet lasted only until we started moving them into the new pen.
Pitch dark, muddy soil underfoot (thanks to some welcome rain) and a very curious Kelpie made the transition ...interesting. With torches strategically placed, including one atop Daryl's head, we successful transferred the new girls  into their home. At the end of this adventure Daryl and I were covered in scratches (from flapping wings and stray claws) and I had suspicious looking, wet, gooey liquid running down the front of my jeans.

So despite the mess it is lovely to watch them scratch their way around the farm. The new girls are not used to roosting and persist in sleeping on the hay at the bottom of the roost. They must not be used to laying on straw either as for the first few days they insisted on scratching all the hay out of the laying boxes and laying on the base. The old girls did not seem impressed. Situation fixed and we are please they are laying on hay once again.This keeps the eggs cleaner and has less chance of breaking.

While we prefer our hens to remain unaltered we had no choice (if we wanted them to stay alive, that is) but to clip their wings, so on another very dark night we were once again disrupting their rest as we gave them a feather trim. For now their pen is not ideal and they fly over the fence if we don't let them out early enough, unfortunately they either fly into the dog pen (bad move) or into the open paddock (foxes playground when we are not home). The new pen is under construction and hopefully it will be habitable in the very near future.

Fresh eggs are now the order of business - free range and fabulous.

Until next time,

Cheers N