Part 0800.0005

[Alis girls]

Jez has decided the new girls are unwelcome. Tonight she was doing her Colditz impression and attmepting to dig her ways into their bit of run. Stuck some bits of wood so she cant dig under unless she acquires a spade. She is really bad. I was planning to leave them for 2 weeks and then try the 2 new girls FR with Jez and then Maggie. howver she is so bad and as shes old and a spasmodic layer and egg eater I wondered if I left her on her own it would be better, she could still see the others but wouldnt be able to harm them. Last time I put her with a new hen she was a terror and had to squirt with water pistol. Any ideas would be gratefully received.

[Mrs Potts]

That might help; separation did help us, only it was new girl Gracie that got segregated because she was brutal; I expected to find spurs on her, to be honest. The other two new ones went straight in with our old Leia - not to be recommended and a huge gamble, but I only had two runs and it was that or a dead hen or two.

 

Gracie spent the first day screaming and crowing but the noise reduced over the next few days. I free ranged them completely separately at first for about a fortnight. Then I did FR them together, whenever Gracie launched in I just picked her up and put her in another part of the garden, where she promptly forgot them. It took about another fortnight for this to reduce to giving just Lottie just one sly thump but in a FR session of an hour, thought that was OK. FR them as close to dusk as possible and integration came of their accord in week 5; kept both runs/coops open so they could make the decision.

 

I did not try squirting Gracie as she was fresh out of a barn, barely feathered and the world had already gone crazy enough in 24 hours though I can see that might work on a more settled hen. I think it was separation, her own food supply and her own cat basket for sleeping did the trick in calming her. She's a completely different hen to the one who arrived.

 

She still crows though!