Gloria and Poppy, the two old Garden Girls, took themselves to bed early as usual. Everyone else milled about the Run, eating, rooking, ignoring each other.
At about 8pm, the 3 Littlees made their way to their Cube. Sunshine (Gold Leghorn) went straight in; Astrid (Gold Leghorn) and Sylvia (Silver Laced Barnevelder) sat on the verandah. The 4 allotmenteers and Fleur carried on pacing around.
Eventually Phyllis, the oldest of the Allomenteers, climbed the ladder. She waited at the top. Violet, the youngster with the odd eyes and a bucketload of attitude, decided to try the other Cube and went straigh in with Gloria and Poppy. A few seconds later, Poppy was evicted.
Elizabeth climbed the ladder behind Phyllis, but gave up. Bott ran around. FLeur paced around, not sure what to do. Eventually she flew on to a perch and waited.
Poppy managed to get back in with Gloria and Violet. Phyllis got in with Sunshine, and then Astrid went in, leaving Sylvia on the verandah. All was going well. Bot decided to try her luck with the old girls.
And then Fleur happened.
She climbed the ladder of her normal Cube (the one with Glory, POppy and Violet). She got off. She ran round and climbed the ladder for the other cube. She barged in. I held my breath. I told myself, if they all stay in, it's ok. If anyone gets ejected I'll have to go and get her out. And then a few seconds later, Astrid and Sunshine rushed out. I gave in and went outside.
I could not get hole of Fleur. She was out of arms reach via the pop hole. I shhooshed her out. but she just sat on the verandah, and I couldn't get to her from there. Astrid and Sunshine went back in. I could bot prevent Fleur from going back in, so I had to open the Cube at the back (not normally a problem, but awkward on this one because of where we'd put the solar panel for the door opener), and I just pushed her out. I then had to run round to get in to the Run to stop her going back up the ladder.
Eventually I managed to get her round to the other Cube ladder, and she went up and in.
Thank goodness for that!
At 3.30 in the morning I woke up because the Girls were making a noise. Luckily the four shrill hens were now at the allotment, so the noise wasn't horrendous. Next door's PIR light was on, and it seems we had a predator (or a cat) go past.
All night we had an owl hooting, which kept waking me up.
At 6.30, the Girls started to complain about being shut in. Again, without the shrillness of Fay and Sasha (and the 2 silvers) it wasn't too bad; however, we had new coop mates, and I was concerned that it might be an indicator of trouble, so I had to get up and go out and see.
I can't see any obvious wounds, so everyone survived. I did see Poppy attack one of the gold leghorns, not sure which one, and I think this was frustration at losing her place to Violet last night: she obviously feels the need to dominate someone else in retaliation.
We're going to cut a removable panel (I don't think we have any doors left) in the run so that I can get my arm in from the other side of the Littlees coop.
We'll see what happens tonight.
DH is going to the Allotment today to check on the girls there. I hope they are all OK!
