Three hours today. A rather pleasant afternoon with warm sunshine and the smell of the morning rain still in the air.
I took a lot of pictures.
As can be seen in the pictures, Mow and Sylph spend most of their time close to each other when out on the field. This is good: it's good for me at any rate, they might see the arrangement as a matter of necessity.
It can also be seen in the recent pictures I think, that they are close to me. This isn't good. While I love having their company what they should be doing is foraging, which they do, because I take them out and do a bit of digging and moving rotting wood etc for them. May be good for me in that it's exercise. They are getting better at the digging for themselves once I've picked a spot and started. The compost heaps have helped in this regard because I just need to hack a few holes and they'll carry on from there.
Then there's the crouching business. I suppose one could see it as cute if one didn't think a bit about what it means in the chicken world, but when a hen thinks I'm a likely candidate for furthering her genes then something has gone seriously wrong.
The only experience of hen only groups I've had has been with Fat Bird and Ruffles who were rooster-less and the only hens left. While they spent a lot of time in my house during the day, Cillin hardly broke a sweat when he eventually mustered the courage to ask if he could move in with them. Ruffles was a pushover anyway.
Mow has been making chick I've found food calls. Sylph used to go and investigate but got a slap for her trouble. Would Mow go broody if I left eggs in the nest.
One would have thought there would be lots of "spare" roosters available but so far I haven't found this to be the case. I may not be looking in the right places. The few I have investigated were rangers and this better off elsewhere. Bear in mind what you see in the pictures is a small portion of the chickens day, the rest is spent in the run. I'm looking for a rooster who would be better off at the field than most other options and that I'm finding a hard call mainly because it reminds me what an appalling restricted life the field chickens have for the majority of their day.
I've pretty much decided that I'll try to introduce a single rooster and once established, then add some more hens. It may not happen like that due to lack of choice. Best laid plans...
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There are still lots of Lady Birds out. Ths one is on one of the few still flowering St John's Wort plants.
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