In the meantime though, it's very very noisy.
We have 5 nestboxes for the 8 Garden Girls who are laying. The Girls, however, all want to lay in the same nestbox, and several chickens want to lay at the same tim.
Each girl likes to get herself settled, and sit and read the paper for a while before she actually lays an egg. They don't like sharing the nestbox, so there's a lot of shouting going on. (like people banging on the bathroom door saying 'hurry up'). Sometimes there is a queue on the stairs
We have 5 nestboxes in their run, including one that could accommodate 3 hens at once. But no. They all have to try and lay in one box.
....
Over in the Allotmenteers temporary run they have one double nest box for the 4 hens that are laying. So far they seem to be managing OK, but it could be just that theur coop is so far down the garden, and the Garden Girs are so noisy, that the sound is muffled. We aren't getting 4 eggs a day from this group, it usually works out at 2 or 3 a day.
This morning, the Allotment Girls announced that they needed more space. They've been really happy mooching around their area (which is mainly the old fruit ed, but with one reasonable sized bit of grass). Ad lib grass is a luxury they aren't used to, and it's kept them occupied since they arrived nearly a week ago.
This morning, all 5 of them were together at the boundary of their area, just standing around. It was time to take the next step.
I removed part of the netting which seprates the Allotment Girls from the Garden Girls. It was a piece right at the back, in an area which the Garden Girls don't often use. The Garden Girls aren't likely to discover this, until they realise that the Aliens are now in their patch. We'll leave it open for a while, to see how it goes.
I've had to go and rake up the Allotmenteers area. The poo is building up, and we need to try and protect the grass for as long as possible.
We're making preparation for the possible evacuation of the remaining Allotment girls. We don't want to do it until we have to, but we want to be ready to move quickly if necessary.
