Friendships

This post is dedicated to Ian, Jackie’s dear beloved husband, of forty years who sadly died suddenly yesterday. This has been a huge shock and our thoughts are with Jackie and her family at this sad and difficult time.

Ian loved their chickens and Clover their oldest hen and top girl was his favourite. He also shared my husband’s interest in model railways. He visited our flock and took a look at my husband’s set up before Christmas.

Ian and Jackie had a lovely Christmas holiday together in Spain and Jackie I know will take some comfort from that and the fact that as it was so sudden Ian didn’t suffer.

Since I met Jackie through our shared love of chickens, we have become really good friends and I love her dearly. I have found that we have a lot in common and often have the same opinions on many subjects. We like reading the same books and of course we chat about chickens just a little!

I have been quite intrigued by the friendships in my flock too. Topaz is top girl and the only one in the flock with a grumpy nature. When she went broody last summer she was an angry broody, shouting and pecking at anyone who came near her, be that me or the rest of the flock.

Topaz doesn’t tolerate any of the girls getting in her way and anyone to get too close to her will get a swift peck. None of the girls are bothered at all by this. They know she is top girl and they move aside for her but soon bounce back seemingly not offended by her behaviour.

Today I went out to take some photos to illustrate this and as usual Topaz was scratching about and doing her own thing.

Topaz is looking great

Topaz has a lovely red comb and wattles and is the only one to start laying again since her moult.

The most interesting friendship to me is Amber and Emerald. Peaches and Barley are the closest of friends and are inseparable. This makes perfect sense to me though because they have been together since they hatched and together in my flock from six weeks old. They always perch together, dust bath together and perch next to each other at bedtime.

Amber and Emerald though have just become friends over time. They are often sat together during the day and nearly always perch together at bedtime. Often when they sit together they are a little apart from the rest of the flock and at bedtime they often choose the lowest right hand perch which has just enough space for the two of them.

Amber and Emerald always sit together

This little perch also only has room for two and seems to be their favourite. Amber is number four in the pecking order and bottom of her pair (Honey and Amber) and Emerald is number six in the pecking order and also bottom of her pair (Toffee and Emerald). Honey and Amber are friendly but Amber does seem to seek out Emerald to sit with and Honey and Amber rarely perch together at bedtime.

Toffee and Emerald who joined the flock together have nothing at all to do with each other and Toffee will chase Emerald away. Toffee is a loner and doesn’t seek out anyone to sit with but will randomly perch where ever she can fit in.

This is the favourite daytime perch

This perch is the one most used and as usual Peaches and Barley are next to each other. Honey is on the left, then Peaches, then Barley, then Toffee and Sparkle on the right. You can see Amber and Emerald in the background on the other side of the weld mesh.

I love seeing these friendships in the flock and love that all the girls have such different characters. They are often grouped together and are very much a flock despite Topaz being rather grumpy and Toffee being a bit of a loner.

Ian also got to see Jackie’s new girls and I know Jackie’s flock will help her by giving her something to focus on and take some comfort from. This has been a difficult post to write but I wanted to honour Ian and his love of chickens too. My heart goes out to Jackie and she knows that I will be there for her if she needs me.