Garden of Stacey

After Bailey was relocated to his new nine wives, Stripe crowed and he was sent away too  –

So I was left with some very miserable girls, missing the male action.

The boredom soon past as Spring came on and the recent good weather and sun had them all over the garden investigating all the new creepy crawlies.

On Monday I went to a great breeder in Co. Laois and got a few more girls. I called one Tori already, because of her fiery orange head and the fact she was the first to take food from my hand and let me pick her up, give her a pet.

The new girls were introduced in the right way and I will upload the video I took of when Izzie freaked out when she walked over to the coop and saw the new girls. She freaked! Video coming soon!

A reader in last months edition of Practical Poultry suggested spritzing a small amount of perfume on both the old and new birds, to hide the scent and to help them interact better. I did so and I have to say it worked in the beginning but they copped on to the fact that there were new hens in the coop, sight said it all. After a few days of pecking and re-establishing the pecking order all are getting on great. When my favourite Blondie pecks one of the new girls and Im sitting on my hunkers I gently pecked her in the same spot with my finger, thus establishing myself in their pecking order.

This morning, Hannah was racing up and down inside the coop so I let her and the rest out a little earlier than usual. Hannah raced over at full speed to a mound about 5ft high we have of hay, straw and wood, similarly shaped to a bonfire. Off she disappeared into the middle of the ‘bonfire’ and I creeped over to investigate.

There she was – sitting on 9 eggs. I was absolutely amazed. When we got Hannah first she was the weakling of the group and never interacted with the other hens due to being ‘the weak one’. I thought she was a goner at one stage but after Christmas her breast filled out and all the colours came back into her plumage.

So Hananh, is the first to go broody and that comes just in time for the arrival of my new incubator.

Eric and I have decided to hatch chicks but wanted to wait until one bird at least went broody. I gave Bailey the Welsummer away for free on condition that I could have a decent batch of fertilised eggs for hatching. Babies in the air this summer!