Introducing . . . .

. . . . Horse the chicken and her friend who, as yet, has no name.  Horse is called Horse because she's hoarse.  They seem to be in pretty good nick - they have feathers and everything.  They can drink from a bowl of water, eat proper chicken food, stand on a perch, peck and scratch at the gound - all things Elvis couldn't do . . . mind you, she could barely even stand up.  They are just a bit pale and anaemic looking.  The lady organising the re-homing said that the farmer they got them from is quite soft with them unlike some and it obviously shows in their condition.

That's the new two on the right with Horse on the
far right - they don't look bad do they?

Bob made a temporary enclosure out of some wriggly tin we happened to have lying around and when he got them home he put them in there with a bowl of food and a bowl of water and they seemed quite happy in there eating stones. The other two weren't a bit interested in them at all.  A while after I'd got home we decided to introduce them briefly so we put Peggy and Bonny in the enclosure with them.  There was quite a bit of eyeing up going on and a bit of minor pecking, but nothing major and at one point they were all eating from the same bowl without trouble.  The eyeing up then got a bit more intense - it's like that 'whoever blinks first loses' game.  Bob then enticed our two out with some tomato (so they came out of their own accord and kept their dignity rather than being hoiked out by us).  This little episode obviously awoke some instinct in the non-Horse chicken who then decided to exert her dominance over Horse and pecked her comb a bit.  

We have now put them all to bed together.  We first dusted them all with mite powder which you're supposed to do with ex-battery chickens, but also means they all smell the same.  First we shut Peggy and Bonny in the house, it's a bit earlier than they usually go to bed, but once the door's shut and it's dark they get on the perch and go to sleep.  Then we plonked the other two on the perch, shut the door and walked away quickly.  Well, I did, I was all for putting on some loud music and ignoring any noise.  Bob stayed up there for a while to listen - there was a bit of clucking and a bit of manouevering, but nothing like the cock fighting that used to go on with Sid and Myfanwy.  He's just been up again, and all's quiet - they're either all asleep or they've all killed each other!  I wouldn't say we're out of the woods yet on the integration front, but so far it hasn't been too traumatic for any of us.