Saturday, August 9, 2008

18. Welcome, finally, Black Star hens!

Yesterday morning we made the swap.
The Jersey Giant and the Black Minorca hens have to now fend for themselves among more than 65 mixed birds -ducks, geese, turkeys and chickens of every variety! There truly is a pecking order, and I witnessed the process with my own eyes...
Guinness, the Minorca should be fine since she was the very bottom of the ladder in our bunch and hardly allowed enough space to roost or access treats. Now there are so many smaller bantam birds under her that she is sure to get her share!
Peeps, the Giant, has other chickens just like her kind and is real big, so she should fare well also.

We took home our newest additions, the three Black Star hens, and let them have the coop to themselves after letting the rest of the bunch out for the day to free-range.

The new girls kept to themselves for most of the day and did not roam far...
Truthfully, they are a little war torn and aggressive because of their previous home life. Finding your place among so many birds must have been a daily battle and exhausting!
I hope they acclimate well to our environment and relax a little! We have such a little flock (all things considered) and the one rooster(so far!), Penguin, is most certainly the boss. Hopefully these elements will help to calm them down.
Here is the yet unnamed most golden of the new hens:

As you can see, her tail feathers show wear from her previous life.
Welcome!

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