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BeckyBoo

We're picking up our ex-batts tomorrow! - THEY'RE HERE!

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Yup, off to sunny Chichester (or somewhere near there) to collect four girlies left over from the December rescue. Would really have liked to get them straight from the cages so I could see their first taste of freedom but that's just for my benefit, these are chooks that are left over which kind of makes me want them more! Had a call from Sarah the organiser a while ago and one of them has become poorly today so fingers crossed she's OK for the journey tomorrow, had to go to Mums for lunch so have been getting their ark ready in the dark! :roll: Very excited, my Dad ("all chooks are smelly horrible creatures" who LOVED looking after our hens when we were on holiday) has casually asked if I would like some company for the journey. What, apart from the three excited kids you mean? He loves them as much as I do! :lol: So, think of us at 10am we'll be in the big red bus hurtling towards Sussex!

Got some names in mind but will have a good look at them first before I decide!

 

Mrs Bertie

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Bcoz I am slightly pickled I just wanted to add how comforted I am to be taking these hens, I know there are hundreds of thousands that have been homed already and I can't take anywhere near as many as I would like, but I am so looking forward to having these poor babies, who have had such an awful life adn giving them a taste of freedom - what happens to them if they don't get rescued - do they go to dog and cat food?

 

Pickled though I am (you'll never know how many times I've edited it prior to posting!) I hope everyone remembers the HFW Jamie and Gordon programmes. Printed off my posters prior to walking to the pub so they're in my car byt he A322 so everyone can see - "Free Range is Fairer"!

 

Mrs Pickled Bertie

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Well, here they are! Thankfully the poorly one seems to have just had an off day and is scratching around with the others. They've got dry mash, wet mash in case they want that, pellets in case they want to try them, corn and grit and mealworms! So far they've tried the corn (like it) the mealworms (not sure - which is torture for the other hens who are trying to break through the mesh to get to the worms that they've left!) and the wet mash so they know where the food is, I'll make sure they've found the water when I go back out in a minute.

So,

"We're off to get some hens!"

 

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.....four rather tatty but VERY strong and flighty ladies!

 

january040.jpg

 

"Tuck in girls"

 

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"More bloomin' hens, and they've got our worms!!

january048.jpg

 

Our old girls are very interested and there's a fair amount of shouting going on in the garden. So far the names of the new ones are Pansy (because the coordinator sprayed her with purple so I would know which was the poorly one, so we said purple Pansy, but she's already known as Monkey as my eldest thought I said CHIMpanzee, not Pansy :roll: )

Then Margot who has darkest brown on her back and the other two are Barbara and Henrietta but I couldn't tell you which is which yet! And bless them, one had laid an egg in the box on their way home.

 

So, have hot cup of sweet tea, feel good and am off into the garden to fret / keep an eye on them and clean the cube.

 

Happy days :lol:

 

Mrs Bertie

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Just to say I have just spent the last half an hour trying to get them to go to bed :roll: in the end I had to lure them up one end of the ark then open the door and grab them one at a time by surprise - poor things, what a day they've had! However they're now in the warm on a nice bed of straw (as I had to shove them through the nest hole and they have refused to go any further to where they're supposed to roost :roll: ) so we shall see if they manage to find the ladder in the morning or wether I have to reverse the whole process. Now I just have to get the two Polands off the cube ladder and into the cube itself, they've decided the rungs make better roosts than inside :? I don't fancy crawling in there in the dark again, all that poo, yuk - anyone got a broom? :lol:

 

Mrs Bertie

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They're not too bad actually but then they were left over from the December rescue so they've had a while to start regrowing feathers. Henrietta has a naked neck, Margot is the biggest and tatty but not too bad, Barbara is a bit bald on her neck and back and generally tatty but Pansy is the worst, she's small, has a completely bare chest (thought about calling her Jordan :lol: ) and no top feathers anywhere really so they're all covered in the fluffy downy stuff they have underneath but they all look beige or white where they've got no flight feathers or proper feathers or whatever they're called. Can't believe on Fathers Day last year I got OH 4 chickens and a cube - now we, or should I say I :oops: have 15!! :lol:

 

Mrs Bertie

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Well done Mrs Bertie! You are so lucky - I was supposed to get 4 chicks in the December rescue but we are due to go away this Wednesday for two and a half weeks and Sophie said it would be better to wait for the next one. In the meantime I have damaged my knee so we might be going nowhere for a while (except into hospital for an arthroscopy :cry: ) But I am so thrilled to see the photos of your new girls... and look forward to my turn soon. My only bit of good news is that today Hetty, who has been broody for a few weeks was back to normal this morning and I collected freezing cold eggs instead of centrally heated ones!!

Good luck with your new girls.

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.....well, it's funny you should say that, we originally wanted 5 ex-batts and I was trying to persuade OH that we should also get two Brahmas but he stamped his feet and said no :evil: BUT, he did end up yelling "For Gods sake I'll get you a b****y Brahma for your birthday, don't you think another 4 is enough for now?" So, that'll be July then! :lol: I want Buff Columbian Brahmas like Jantys, two please, big, imposing and like eagles. That'll scare the cat to death, he doesn't know chickens come supersized!!

:lol:

Mrs Bertie

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