Newbies

By meadowmice in Animal Friends, Chickens, Family on March 19, 2020March 19, 2020

I’ve decided that having the girls’ company for this next while it was perfect timing to take the ‘add a rooster’ plunge.

This required some alterations to our chicken run. We need to keep the newbies apart from the old girls. Kyla and Lexi each picked up one of our power drills and put up a screen dividing wall in the Chicken Palace.

We headed down the road to a friend’s place. She had some chickens looking for new homes. Of course … she also has horses and donkeys. So we had to spend some time reacquainting ourselves with them.

Turned out there was a great rooster – GREAT BIG ROOSTER, and TWO hens who wished to make the move to our place. We scooped them up and carried them gingerly to their new headquarters.

Lexi has befriended poor skittish Roxi. Her name has now been expanded to be Roxi Raine. Matching Lexi’s middle name. She is a little bantam Cochin Calico hen.

Kyla had curled Lindy into her arms when we were down the road and just kept her warm and comfy there until we got her into her new digs. She is a Buff Orpington hen.

St. Patrick (Paddy to us) is HUGE compared to what our pal Goldie had been. He is a Blue Orpington rooster. AND he is gentle! He is not bothered by being picked up … although I suspect that as he settles into being boss of all six hens he will not like the lower status being handled might bring with it.

He was very interested in the four old girls on the other side of the netting wall.

Sophie recognized his handsome visage right off the bat. She came over a number of times to check him out. Above he was busy doing the rooster ‘woot woot woot’ call to share his Cheerios with her.