Eggcellent Eggs!

Sorry for the bad pun, it was bound to happen sometime! Alls well at Chook Towers, the girls have been successfully excluded from the garden and have their patio area as a large run which has a dirt area for them mess about in. Since the feather pecking incident I've been leaving the girls outside while I go out during lunch. The garden is by no means fox-proof, though we have 6 foot fences all the way around I'm sure a fox could get over if it was determined. We seem to have country foxes here, thankfully not town foxes and no-one's ever seen any during the day, and Andrew has only heard them once or twice in the dead of night. We also have active neighbours directly next to us, who are around in the garden a lot, which works as an extra deterrent.

The pecking seems to have subsided, although Bett does still have the occasion peck at Shirley. Speaking of Shirley, her feathers are looking better, she still had a bald patch on her back, but it's getting smaller. She also seems to be moulting at the same time, so is looking a bit ropey at the moment.

The group dynamic seems to have changed since the feather pecking. Shirley and Bett, who used to team up as defence against boss Ivy have split up with Shirley living in fear of being pecked by her friend. She's moved over to Ivy who seems to quite like her and pair are seen together most of the time. The pair give Bett a wide berth, but the group seems to work well.

None of this has put them off laying, we are getting 3 eggs a day almost every day! The battery industry lost 3 good'uns when they let my lot go! Haha!

Finally, I must apologise for the egg count page, I am planning to reorganise it when I have time, and am currently keeping a paper record of egg production, watch this space!

The new extended Chook Towers. Note the Fort Knox type fence to protect my poor plants!

Shirley 1 month ago And today!

After you!

Feather Pecking & Progress Pix

It's been a case of so far so good as far as the girls are concerned. The trio have been steadily growing their feathers back and are now completely tame, following me to the shed wanting corn.

Unfortunately we now have a feather pecking problem, which I discovered today. Andy and I had been away for a couple of days and on our return I noticed Shirley had lost all her lovely new feathers on her back. I didn't think much of it as assumed there had been a bit of a squabble due to them being confined to the run, and that now they were back free-ranging they would be fine.

Alas, today I noticed Ivy (the boss hen) with a broken, bloody wing feather. I kept an eye on the girls and quickly discovered that Bett was the culprit. Funnily enough, Bett currently has the best plumage. She then proceeded to have a peck at Shirley (her former best friend). Shirley also appeared to have quite a bald, sore looking wing (though no blood) which I hadn't noticed before. I shot off to our local feed merchant and forked out for some anti peck spray, came home and doused Ivy and Shirley in the stuff. This made me very unpopular, so I was less than impressed when Bett immediately walked up to Shirley, pulled out a feather and ate it. Hopefully it was a particularly unpleasant-tasting one and that will be the end of that. I fear that this may go on for a while, but fingers crossed it is resolved as soon as possible!

It was the girls' 1 month Henniversary on the 6th, so here are some before and after pix.

Bett, the most changed of the trio, barely recognisable from a month ago!

Shirley was in the best condition of the 3, and also due to the feather pecking she currently looks unchanged from her 'before' photo (right)

Not a lot to say about Ivy, except wow!

War is declared!

The girls are really coming into their own now. All three of them more confident than ever, merrily letting me walk up to them and coming up to me without worry. Bett is turning out to be a right character, and turning into a very confident girly, I can see her giving me trouble later on. I'm planning on buying some mixed corn for the girls, I'm sure they're going to love that.

Feathers are really coming through now. They're just starting to appear at the end of the quills, Bett and Ivy look like they're going to be quite dark, Shirley could be turning into a blonde girl! Can't wait to see what the final look will be! Bett's actually decided to lose her wing feathers altogether and start afresh, she's really putting the effort into this as she still hasn't laid an egg since we got her (apart from on the first morning).

Shirley and Ivy are taking turns in laying, taking a few days off each. Ivy is starting to mellow a bit, and isn't quite a nasty to the others, though they still seem to keep out of her way. She's also slowed down on the eating, at one point I thought she was going to explode with the amount of layers crumb she was putting away! The current sleeping arrangements are working well, with Ivy on a perch and Shirley and Bett taking a nest box each.

I have decided to declare war on the chooks as the relationship between chooks and my small garden is not great. They've decided to rake up the lawn and flowers, so something needs to be done. I was shocked to find that it would cost £100 to put a small picket fence up between the patio (which the back door leads onto, and where the coop is) and the rest of the garden. We've managed to get hold of some spare trellis so will be devising something over the next week.

Ivy has already made several visits to the kitchen with her chums in tow.

Shirley looking blonde (fingers crossed!)

Bett showing off her new feathers.

2 Weeks Later... New Feathers!

Shirley says hello!

The 3 girls are all doing well and acting like real chickens now. Shirley has hardly stopped laying since day one, taking just the occasional day off (have a look at the 'Egg Count' page). She's also found time to start growing new feathers on her back. I'm really pleased because most of her back was literally plucked, so no snapped feathers, just no feathers at all.

Bett's started growing feathers too, you can just about see them starting to come through on her neck. Her wing is about the same, still visibly bruised but doesn't seem to be bothered by it. She's looking slightly less pale as well.

Finally Ivy is showing the most feather growth, all over her neck and wings. Her appetite also hasn't slowed down much - perhaps that's because she's just come back into lay again, having taken a fortnight off.

Worms and White Eggs

As hoped, all 3 of the girls are settled in and are accepting me being around, walking past me very closely and Shirley is becoming happier being picked up. Speaking of Shirley, she is the only lady laying at the moment, and has laid 3 days in a row, each time a beautiful white egg (see below). I've not had an ex-batt yet who lays such beautiful white eggs, so it's a real treat. Shirley has also developed a taste for earthworms, and delights in scratching them up and scoffing them!

Good news! Bett's dodgy wing seems to be improving. I noticed yesterday that she is no longer tripping over it, so is holding it up a bit better. Also due to her being bald, I spotted quite a bit of yellowish bruising around her shoulder and elbow areas so hopefully that explains the strange position of the wing, and that she's on the mend!

Settling In

So the girls have had 4 full days of freedom and they seem to be pretty settled now. All of them are happily wandering the garden, and seem to be less bothered by me being there, though they are by no means tame! Bett is the naughty one at the moment, I have been pecked by her twice and she even runs and flaps at me if she thinks she's cornered. I don't attempt to touch her or anything, she's just really jumpy. They've all got the idea of coming out of the coop by themselves in the morning, though Ivy tends to cause a log-jam in the evenings by perching on the pop hole threshold leaving the other two standing around outside. I have to prod her off her perch with a cane (not getting my hands too close to either her or Bett at the moment) and let the other two in. Hopefully they will sort themselves out.

I noticed this morning that Shirley has 'got' scratching, she looked like she didn't know exactly why she was doing it but it must have felt right! In the last hour I spotted both Bett and Shirley dust-bathing by the back door - I'm so impressed though I worry for my garden - they already have a taste for Petunias!

Here come the girls!

The girls appeared to settle in well on their first whole day of freedom. Shirley (pictured right) was tapping of the run bars with her beak so I relented and let her out in the garden. She went about free-ranging like she'd been doing it her whole life. I'm in the fortunate position that I work from home, so my girls can free-range in the garden all day, and I will only put them in the run if I have to go out. Ivy and Lily-Bett (Bett for short) remained in the run, a bit overcome by everything.

It was around this time that I noticed poor Bett had a wing problem, clearly in the photo it's hanging too far down. BHWT say it's been checked and as long as it isn't causing any problems she should get along fine, poor girly! I've been keeping an eye on her, and she seems to be able to move the 'elbow' joint to lift the whole wing outwards but the 'wrist' joint is immobile.

The reason I haven't mentioned Ivy yet is because she hasn't shown much of her personality so far. She is definitely the boss hen, and pecks Bett and Shirley whenever they make a dash for the food. She seems content at the moment to stay in the run and eat and eat! Looking forward to Ivy and Bett getting more confident.