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.

Welcome!

Well this is it. 2 years ago I rehomed 4 ex battery hens at my parents house. Happily 3 of the 4 are still with us and doing very well. I have since bought my own place with my partner, and after a year we decided it was about time we got our own chooks - ex battery hens of course! This time we rehomed with the BHWT as they had a pickup point in nearby Thaxted. The date was 6th August, and those 11 days took their time to go by!

Ark built, food ordered, feeders, drinkers and bedding bought - all systems are go!

The rehoming day is an experience in itself. We were told there were about 250 hens in the pen in Mel's (rehoming co-ordinator) garden, I've never seen so many chickens - they started off with 400! We were given 3 of the featherless variety, they looked so bad it took my breath away. Our 'original four' were fairly well feathered, but this lot were totally bald in places.