It's been an 'interesting' few weeks. Good things and bad things have happened but it's certainly never been boring. The big news is that the newbies have moved into 'The Big House' which is great because it saves me a whole lot of poop cleaning with them all in one place. It happened naturally which is so much better than me trying to force the issue. I opened up the big house one morning, went to open the rabbit hutch and let the new girls out and realised that Bessie and Queenie were already behind me! Only Maggie and Victoria were in the rabbit hutch, no doubt enjoying the space but wondering if they were missing anything at the sleepover which was going on in the big house. So I decided that I would keep the rabbit hutch locked up and hope they would all go in together that night which they did. Maggie and Victoria weren't too amused, Maggie in particular was running all round the rabbit hutch trying to find a way in but when it started to get dark she just went up to bed with the other girls. Problem solved; well one of them anyway!
The next problem was getting them to lay in the big house like grown up girls. I kept weakening and opening the rabbit hutch in the morning to let them in because the sight of them all running up and down with their legs crossed needing to lay an egg made my eyes water. One morning I opened the door to see if there were any eggs and found Bessie and Maggie both in there with Snowdrop crushed up against the wall behind them! She had been taking a great interest in her old home and had been in to have a nosey round a few times. She must have snuck in there and got caught in the act and not liked to move incase the other girls noticed her in there. She had a very worried look on her face, it did make me laugh. She hasn't done it since! Bessie started laying in the big house on her own after I overslept one morning (bad chicken owner!), and let them out a bit late. This morning I decided enough was enough and just left the rabbit hutch closed. I made a point of not watching and the result was that everyone laid in the big house. Big phew from me!
Rosie became ill last week. She was very hunched and had an upset stomach (yes I know there is a proper word for it but I can't spell it ok?) She was still eating and drinking which was weird. I took her to see Owlmomma on Tuesday and she told me Rosie is as thin as a rake and put her on antibiotics. So poor Rosie spent the last five days in a puppy cage on the porch of the summerhouse. She could have wandered about but I needed to keep an eye on her poops plus I had such trouble catching her in the first place I wasn't going to let her go. It took me about 15 mins of chasing her round the garden throwing my coat over her to finally snare her. I kept telling her she was meant to be ill but she wasn't listening and ran like a greyhound. So anyway,I am waffling, she had to live in the cage and I had to inject her once a day. She seemed better within a day or so and has now finished her meds and is wandering round free and keeping right out of my way.
A couple of funny things happened while Rosie was in the cage. The first time I gave her a jab I had her on my lap wrapped up in a towel. She wasn't too amused and was clucking and wriggling. The next thing I knew Ivy who is not a touchy feely chicken at all had jumped up on my knee. That seemed to calm Rosie down and then Ivy jumped off. I can only think she was concerned about her friend because she spent most of the five days of Rosie's confinement sitting with her. It was really heartwarming to see. I had to laugh at Rosie this afternoon, you would think she would be sick of the sight of that cage but no there she was sitting inside it with the door open having a siesta with Ivy keeping watch over her. Chickens are strange creatures.
I've just had Hairy Hubby come in and tell me that Blossom has a limp. Honestly these birds give me stress, I have just got one right and another one is giving me worry. If I have to catch her up and treat her it will be a nightmare because I have never managed to lay a finger on her since the day I brought her home. The only thing I can think to do is wait till she has gone to bed tonight, grab her out of the coop and bring her indoors for a good look at it. Hopefully she has just jumped off something and given it a jolt. She was fine at lunch time.
First some good news. Mr and Mrs Harry Lovey-Dovey are proud to announce the hatching of their new baby. At last Esme's hard work has paid off! We were becoming very worried about her because she had been sitting for weeks even though I had removed the no good egg. We were thinking about blocking the nest hole to get her to come out and behave normally. I had made enquiries if I could buy some fertile dove eggs to pop under her like you do with a broody chicken but there seem to be none available. Last weekend Hairy was down there and shooed her off the nest to give it a double check before we blocked it and was shocked to find a tiny newly hatched chick. Talk about a surprise. Poor Esme she had finally become a Mummy and some hairy great human shooed her off it. As far as I know all is still well, she is sitting well (no change there, I think she will forget how to fly soon...) and Harry is taking food to them. I do hope all goes well, it would be great to have a new naturally reared bird in the flock.
The other drama is that Pinky went missing. Actually they all went missing for a day and returned without her. The really worrying thing was that May was as black as the ace of spades. It looked like she had been down a chimney or something. All her underwings were grey. As the days went by I became increasingly worried about Pinky and felt that something must have happened to her. I asked the new neighbours in the house they roost on (grrr) to keep an eye out for her and to let me know if they found her even if it was bad news. I even considered putting a missing ad in the local pet shop. Then yesterday she turned up as bold as brass as if nothing had happened. She landed on my head, pooped on it and flew to the bird table as usual. Heaven knows where she has been but I am very glad she is home. She really is a problem child!
So what with one thing and another it has been eventful. It's amazing I am not bald from tearing my hair out. Or maybe I will do that tomorrow....
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| Snowdrop popping into the kitchen for a visit |
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