One of the breeds the buyer has is Silver Laced Barnevelders. I was soooooo tempted to include one of those in my choice of 3 hens. I resisted.
Thinking about it - about Silvia and the two gorgeous cockerels - made me think about the whole of that horrible time all over again.
When the first Covid lockdown was announced, we were still allowed to go out once a day to tend to our animals.
At the time, we had many hens, and 2 beautiful Silverlaced Barnevelder boys, on the allotment. We had already discussed what we would do if a Lockdown was imposed, and as soon as it was announced we implemented our Plan.
Because of the nature of the virus, and how little we knew about it, we were concerned that both of us might be ill at the same time, too ill to go and see to the birds. We decided that we would reduce the number of birds on the allotment, so that there would be enough water (and food, they always had plenty of food available) to last them for a couple of weeks if we were both struck down at the same time.
We reviewed all the birds. Some were too rickety to bring home, we were concerned that shock of the move might finish some of them off. We needed to leave enough younger girls down there so that the boys didn't cause a nuisance to the Oldies. In the end, we selected a group of girls to bring back home, and we brought one of their coops as well. We thought it would only be for a few weeks, so we kept them separate.
It all worked well. We didn't have the garden space for separate free ranging, so we knew we'd have to let them free range together - but we'd keep the 2 flocks separate otherwise.
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| March 2020 - Gardeners and some of the Allotmenteers |
As time went on, it became more of a problem. The flocks were starting to mingle, there was some aggression and bullying. Two of our Garden Girls were due to go and live at the Allotment, so we thought it might be a good idea to star getting them to mingle with the Allotmenteers.
Meanwhile, at the allotment, one of the six girls we'd left behind died (of old age). The boys now only had 5 girls between them, including Nora, who was ancient and blind in one eye. The last thing she needed was the attention of 2 randy cockerels.
At home, the noise level increased as the girls vied for position. The morning shenanigans started to become a problem, and we had to do something. We decided that we'd send 5 girls to the Allotment.
One was an Allotmenteer, Annie, one of my favourites. She had been unhappy since she had arrived, and she was calling calling calling. We don't know if it was for one of the boys, or perhaps we had inadvertently separated her from her bestie. Two were the two Leghorns (Summer and Blondie) who were earmarked as future Allotmenteers anyway. We also decided to send Sasha the Appenzeller, and Fay the Fayoumi, because they were the two noisiest girls and we figured that there would be fewer unknown hens for the two Leghorns to deal with. Fay and Sasha were more than capable of looking after themselves. We did this on Tuesday 21st April, 2020.
On Sunday 26th April, when I got to the allotment, thieves had been.
They had tried to steal birds from the shed, but hadn't been able to get in. They had damaged the auto opener, they had used a trough to try and scare the birds into coming out, but this had failed. The thieves then discovered that there were some hens sleeping in the outside coop, and they managed to steal four of them: Blondie, Summer, Sasha and one of the established Allotmenteers, a grey Dorking called Pong. Fay had been in the same coop, but had managed to escape and evade capture.
We guessed that there were 2 thieves, and they'd each carried 2 birds. We anticipated that they would be back in a day or two for more. We had to evacuate.
We took all the Girls home that day, and left the 2 boys behind. We could not have the boys in the garden, the noise was already unacceptable. We couldn't leave the boys on the allotment on their own. Apart from the fact that it was horrible for them, they were very much at risk of being stolen - and if that happened, the best we could hope for is that they ended up n someone's plate. The worst was that they would be used as training fodder for dogs or cockfighting.
We couldn't rehome them - movement restrictions were in place. The next day, DH culled the boys. It broke my heart. Those two, gorgeous, soft boys.
At home, we now had 3 flocks of chickens in 4 coops. 16 hens in total, a huge increase from the normal 5. The shenanigans of who wanted to bunk with whom went on for weeks.
Here are my notes from 2nd May
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 possible minute
before going up the cube ladder.
Violet, Elizabeth and
Bott tend to keep 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 kept it because the younger girls
didn't want to challenge her. Sasha was one of 4 girls stolen from
our allotment. She was there becaiuse we wanted to introduce our two
Silver Leghorns (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 previously 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 of the 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 proximity without squabbling, and sunbathe together as a big 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 decided 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
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| 14 of the 16 girls, May 2020 |
The noise was horrendous, and I was having to get up at 5am every day to try and sort them out.
On 5th June, Sylvia, silver laced Barneverlder hatchmate of the 2 boys, died in a freak accident (her neck was broken as someone climbed over her to get into one of the coops one night). The only female barnevelder from that hatch, the gorgeously gentle Sylvia, had died.
It was such a sad end to the Barnevelder hatching.
And then.
We
