New arrivals

Exciting news!  We have just been to collect two new chickens.  They are teenager chickens, that is they are young chickens (just 14 weeks old) and not old enough to lay eggs yet.  Technically this is known as 'point-of-lay'.  They are also real chickens (as opposed to ex-batteries) and it seemed quite strange to bring home fully-feathered chickens.  And (sorry, shouldn't start a sentence with 'and'), because they're so young, they don't have proper combs (the red spiky bit on top of their heads), so they look really strange.  In about three weeks they will be old enough to lay eggs and at that stage their combs will grow and turn red and once they start laying, they should be quite reliable

We bought these off some people we know from the smallholders group and asked their advice about introducing them to Molly and Elvis, I explained about the trauma we had when we got Elvis and Myfanwy.  He said that they are bound to fly at each other if there is chicken wire between them and that the best thing is to get young hens and put the new ones into the house in the evening when they are all sleepy and docile.  Another tip was to douse them with talc so that the new ones don't smell like different chickens - they all smell strange.  Now, I'm not sure if we got the wrong end of the stick with this!  We took him literally and sprinkled Molly and Elvis under the arms with baby talc before we went off to pick up the new ones.  The chap said he'd do the new ones and when we checked he said he'd already done it, nodding towards to pot of mite treatment.  Oops, does he just call mite powder talc, or did he really mean baby powder?  We didn't like to ask, but I guess it won't do them any harm and certainly none of them will smell like chickens!

So, we got the new two home at about 6.30pm, Molly and Elvis were tucked up and sleepy in the hen house and we just opened the door and lifted the new ones onto the perch, closed the door, spoke soothing words and left them to it . . . . . . and not a peek or a sqwark did we hear.  I think when it's dark they really don't have much of a clue what's going on and are just too sleepy to bother.  Oh, my goodness, they're all going to have a shock when they wake up!  So far, so good though and we'll just have to wait and see what they're like tomorrow.  Perhaps because the teenager chickens are younger, they'll know their place and be quiet and biddable.  What on earth makes me think teenagers would be anything like that?!!!

So, tomorrow I'll take some photos and I'll let you know as soon as we've decided on names.  Oh, by the way they are Warrens (think that's the same make as battery chickens), so we did think we might call one Warren, but I've been told off for giving them boys names (confuses people you know, but it made me smile when people called Sid 'he' as in 'has he laid any eggs'!).   Did think of Johnson and Johnson in honour of the talc question (and I don't think we'll be able to tell them apart without combs, so having the same name would be handy).  As with all the others, we'll have to get to know them a bit and a name will pop into our heads.