The Barnies were easy. Once I'd caught them, each sat beautifully in my hand and ate my treat offering. I popped them in to the travelling crate with some treats. teh Leghorns were difficult to catch and would not eat once caught, not even Long John. Bertie Junior was a bit of trouble, but happy enough.
We drove slowly and carefully. At the allotment, we put them in their coop, with the door shut. We rhen busied ourselves with other jobs, like egg collecting and washing and filling waterers. We then opened the coop door, and carried on with jobs (mucking out, this time).
Paul came out early on and wandered around. He ate some corn, he had a scratch around. I caught him and stroked him, and put him on the feeder, but he ran off. A little while later, I opened the nest box to find the others all sitting in there. I told them to go out and explore, and threw some more corn.
I caight them, put them on the treadle. They are used to operating a treadle feeder, but they need to know that there is food inside.
All but BigBoy came out. Eventually I had to open the nestbox door again to encourage him out.
I've seen it before: the one who is boss here in the garden is not so cock sure when they move to the allotment.
By the time we left, they'd all been scratching around, drinking, and listening to Bertie Sr crow. Bertie Sr obviously knows they are boys, because he had to get on top of one of the coops to crow, and he did a lot of displaying for his laydeez.
We'll go back tonight to make sure they all manage to get to bed, and to see if they've managed to work the feeder.
And I'll be back again tomorrow morning.
