Following the sudden demise of Perdy (one of our younger girls), we decided that we needed to boost our laying power and so yesterday I arranged to collect two new point-of-lay ladies from Pentwyn Poultry to join our flock:
The bluebell girls
They are a little shy at the moment, but I’m sure that they’ll soon get used to us. Being the new girls, I thought I should name them after a couple of the younger generation of Terry Prattchett’s witches, so they are Tiffany and Annagramma. Just as in the books, Esmeralda has been eying them up and making herself look big and important:
Don’t mess with Esme!
Lorna and Aliss, not being responsible for the flock, have been ignoring the new arrivals. We’ll keep old and new separated by the mesh for a while until they get used to each other and since we still have the old wooden chicken house, they can sleep separately too for the time being. Last time we introduced newbies we tried to get them together too soon, but now we know better and we have the space to allow a gradual introduction.
Currently, my only problem is that I can’t tell the newbies apart… I’m sure they will distinguish themselves soon though. And, since they are 19 weeks old, we should have eggs from them imminently. So I’ll just leave you with a few pictures:
The Snail of Happiness 
cambridgearomatherapy
/ August 21, 2014HI Jan,
our experience is that introducing new chooks to a flock works without having a period of separation only if you introduce quite a few at once.
Oh and I still can’t tell our bantam chicks apart, though someone with more experience of them than us thought one of the four is a boy. If we get three girls, I suppose that isn’t bad odds 🙂
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ August 21, 2014Three out of four is great – they usually all end up being boys and there’s not much eating on a bantam!
LikeLike
katechiconi
/ August 21, 2014You can really see the Maran blood in this particular hybrid: they’re a Maran/Rhode Island Red cross so you should get lovely dark brown eggs from them. Very pretty girls, and how suitable, considering Tiffany was going to wear ‘midnight’!
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ August 21, 2014I’ve been hankering after a Bluebell or two for ages. Their legs are almost metallic grey, which is interesting… you usually pay more for a metallic paint job!
The breeder they came from had lovely healthy free-range poultry, which was good to see. I also noticed how gently he handled the hens – not always the case with breeders.
LikeLike
davidprosser
/ August 21, 2014Esme looks suitably important so the newbies will know their place in the henarchy. I hope you get your first tasty eggs soon.
xxx Hugs Galore xxx
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ August 21, 2014Signs are promising… I can’t wait to return to egg-cess!!
xxx hugs xxx
LikeLike
nerdinthebrain
/ August 21, 2014Congrats on your new little ones! 😀
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ August 25, 2014Thank you – I love them!
LikeLike
narf77
/ August 21, 2014Very pretty new girls and boy does Esme know how to deliver the old stink eye! Steve just named one of our point of lay girls “Esmerelda” for some reason. She is pure black and must be a throwback to big yin’s past as most of the flock are Wyandottes but she is pure black Australorp. I hope that Esme’s nose goes back in joint and she lets the new girls join the flock. I can’t blame her for being suspicious and jealous, they are beautiful girls 🙂
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ August 25, 2014I think Esme is just itching to bet at them and show them who’s boss… she’ll have to wait a while though!
LikeLike
narf77
/ August 25, 2014She certainly looks like an “Esme” to me ;). People think that chooks are wonderful fluffy derriered critters who cluck politely around the base of trees and that are delightfully benign right up to the point when they get a few and realise that they have distinctive personalities, that they are a lot smarter than people let on and that they can be extremely stubborn and bolshie when they want to be. Ms Esme might have to be stuck in the fruit cage for a bit methinks! 😉
LikeLike