Over in the temporary run, on the old fruit cage bed, we have the latest lot of Allotment Evacuees. These are the girls we brought home after the theft of four girls. This oddball group is made up of:
- Nora (our oldest girl, 9+, blind in one eye, bit unsteady),
- Katherine (Welsh Black, sister of Poppy and Gloria, 8+, lovely gentle girl, who just gets on with things and doesn't make a fuss.),
- Big Bird (big yellow girl, 6+, brick shaped bum, friendly girl but just the wrong shape for breeding)
- Ping (silver grey dorking, 3+, incredibly noisy, She gets bullied by EVERYONE she comes into contact with, apart from, possibly, those she's currently living with), and
- Annie (Welsh Black x, 4+, hatchmate of Barbara who died recently) Annie wanders everywhere. She tried joining the Purple Cube crowd, but gave up and joined the Evacuees in the temporary run. Apart from Annie, the Evacuees tend to keep to their own area.
The earlier Allotmenteers, these are the ones who we brought home when Lockdown was announced:
Violet, Elizabeth and Bott (Harem Welsh Blacks x Bertie, 2+) sleep in the purple cube with Gloria, poppy, Fay and Fleur. Violet is aiming to be Top Chook, and from the very first night, established her dominance by ejecting Poppy. Poppy and Fleur wait outside until the last posisble minute before going up the cube ladder.
Violet, Elizabeth and Bott tend to leep together as a little flock, and are often joined by Phyllis. Violet is a gobby chook, to the point of real annoyance. Elizabeth remembers jumpy uppy and is an inquisitive friendly girl.
Phyllis (Welsh Black x, with her Australorp side dominant, 6+) sleeps with the Littlees(Sunshine, Astrid and Sylvia) at night. She's first in the Cube at night, and the 3 litlees hang around outside before eventually going in. I haven't observed any bullying, and there is no evidence of pecking. During the day, she wanders around with the younger black chooks, Violet, Elizabeth and Bott. Phyllis is an inquisitive, friendly girl, and likes to be next to us if we're in the chicken area. She is a real people person.
Out Littlees continue to be a happy little Trio Sunshine, Astrid (both Gold Leghorns) and Sylvia (Silver Laced Barnevelder). Sylvia is way down the pecking order.
Our original Garden Girls
Poppy (Welsh Black, 8+) has been in the Garden the longest. She was the sole survivor of a fox attack, and we brought home her sister Gloria from the allotment to keep her company while we decided what to do. Gloria is Top Chook. When we introduced new girls (Fleur, Fay and Sasha), Poppy fought to be number 2, but has always had a dodgy hold on that position. She mainly lept it becasethe younger girls didn't want to challenge her. Sasha was onbe of 4 girls stolen from our allotment. She was there becaiuse we wanted to introdiuce our two Silver Leghirns (Blondie and Summer, who were also stolen) to the reduced Allotment group, and we wanted a break from her and Fay's shrill squawking.
Fay (Fayoumi, 5+) came back from her holiday to the allotment a much more determined chook. She had preoviously been second from bottom in the pecking order. She started off living in the temporary run with the Evacuees, but one night she decided to try her luck in the purple cube. She's stayed with that group ever since. She's lost status as a result, because they are treating her as low ranking again. She doesn't really range with any group, she flies out of their area at will. Sometimes she'll snuggle up with one o fthe other groups, with the netting between them. She has started to let me pick her up, which is really unusual.
Mostly, there isn't too much infighting going on, unless the Girls accidentally cross paths. They graze together in fairly close prioximity without squabbling, and sunbathe together as a biig group. There is a lot of squabbling over nest boxes.
The odd spats are things like Poppy, Phyllis and Nora having an altercation when Nora dcided to check out the Big Run. I'm amazed that Nora held her own quite well! The leghorns attack Ping (everyone attacks Ping); and there's lots of quick pecks going on, but no real nastiness.
We're trying to work out what the new order is, but it hasn't been properly established yet.
