Somehow I think the purple is gonna last waaayy longer than the red.
I think we need to wager on this one.....
Maybe because I've been both colors myself
Al, the chicken lover in me hopes that a sweater will cure the problem. The ******** in me wants you to take pictures of the hen in a sweater.
Maybe set something up where they can see each other but not get to each other, the way you do when you're introducing a new hen? Like reintroduce her to the flock?
I was hoping that once Rhonda started laying, the other girls would be a little more "welcoming". No such luck. Gladys gives her "the look" and she runs away, but Aggie takes every opportunity to give her a peck if she gets close enough. Ironic, too, that Aggie and Rhonda used to live together at Auntie Roberta's house. They remind me of the 7 year olds in my class.
Al, I'll trade you the purple fingers. I learned an important lesson about not using the electric mixer to add red food coloring to the red velvet cake recipe.
I am not familiar with Blu-Kote, but I am familiar with Gentian Violet and that will be on your fingers until the skin wears off. They use that to stain cells for slide prep. You can use disposable gloves for hair dye but whatever's on your hand is staying on for a long time. Sorry. :-(
Oh Al, please please please buy a pink doggie sweater for your hen! I think that would just about make my month.
As far as toughening up your hens for the snow, well, I did shovel a path to their coop. Only one came out the first day, and then weirdly enough she just took off for the pine trees where I hadn't shoveled or put any treats out. I'm not really sure what was going through her chick pea sized brain, but she did seem a little chilly when she got back. As the snow melted, one of the other hens came out onto the shoveled area to eat treats, but my Easter Egger still refused to set foot outside until the snow melted completely. I think she's a real Latina chicken.
I hear what you're saying about taking care of hens not being all fun all the time. After losing one of my favorites to cancer earlier this month I realized just how fragile they are. If I was able to keep a rooster and rebuild my flock on my own maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but since I can only have 6 or less each one means more to me.
