Carol's Chickens

One of the great things about chickens is that they have such individual personalities. My four girls are all quite different.

Treacle

Treacle is the biggest of my girls and very placid. She is the least bothered about treats and seems to need the most sleep. She will often be dozing on the big perch and not be bothered to come for treats when the others all come running (except for the scratch mix of corn, meal worms and sunflower hearts which is too irresistible) but if it’s just greens or grapes she won’t come if she is happily perching or dust bathing. She purrs while dust bathing.

She is the one that most likes to sit on me and if I bend down or crouch down for any reason at all she is up on my shoulder in an instant. If I am standing she stretches and turns her neck, looking for a way up.

Treacle seems to be taking the place of top hen from Pepper as she is maturing. She will peck lightly at Pepper to show her, her place and she pecks at Dotty when she is in her way at the treats feeder but doesn’t peck at Bluebell who is bottom hen and never troubles any of them.

Treacle is also the quietest, she only goes “boc boc” if cross or alarmed. She purrs when happy and sometimes make a “quack” sound like a duck.

Bluebell

Bluebell is bottom hen and has been bullied by Dotty but Bluebell has never pecked any of them which is probably why she is bottom hen. Bluebell is the smartest though and will discover anything new first out of all them. She is also the nosiest and has to investigate anything we are doing in the chicken enclosure. She is probably the most mature as her comb and wattles are more mature than the other three.

Because of her being pecked away from the treats by Dotty she has attached herself to me the most, as she sees me as her protector. She will follow me around and runs to the furthest corner when I leave as if to beg me not to go. She is always the first to come to me and follows me around pecking at my clothes. When Treacle jumps on my shoulder, Bluebell circles me while mournfully going “boc boc” as she wants to get up too. Bluebell likes to chat and goes “boc boc” a lot of the time. If she is upset (when Dotty chases her from the treats) she makes it quite clear with a melancholy “boc boc”.

Pepper

Pepper is a very sweet hen. She was the most skittish to begin with so it means all the more to me that she now likes to peck at my clothes and allows me to stroke her. She looks up at me when Treacle is on my shoulder and looks like she wants to come up too.

Pepper is the most vocal of all the girls. She goes “boc boc” all the time and she doesn’t like strangers in their enclosure. If we have visitors she very loudly goes “boc boc” and makes it known that she is not happy.

Unlike the others Pepper is very dainty when she eats. Where as the other three will swallow small grapes whole, Pepper takes her time picking small bits off. Sometimes she will run off with her grape to eat it in peace while the others are wolfing them down.

She was top hen until recently but doesn’t seem to be upset at Treacle taking her place. I have only ever seen Pepper peck at Bluebell occasionally when she is in her way at the treats.

Pepper and Dotty were together from less than a month old and Pepper is patient with Dotty and has never pecked her even when she is in her way at the treats.

Dotty

Dotty is a month younger than the other three girls and is a bully. She was pecking Bluebell away from the treats all the time until recently when Treacle started to put her in her place and she seems to be a bit better, I could put six half apples down and Dotty would keep moving Bluebell away from each one. Dotty only ever pecks Bluebell as she knows that Treacle would peck her back and her and Pepper are too close to peck each other.

I have used a bottle of water spray on Dotty when she is pecking Bluebell, to try to deter her. Dotty is the only one of the four that has no interaction with me and I am not sure if it is because I would tell her off and spray her or if it’s just her nature. She has no interaction with anyone and will not allow me to stroke her. She smartly side steps out of the way if I go to touch her.

Dotty is the greediest and is always first to the treats, she is also the only one that will jump up at me when I go to the storage cabinet where the treats are kept.

Dotty doesn’t have her grown up voice properly yet. She occasionally made a “boc” sound and we thought she was getting her grown up voice but it has never got any further than that. She still twitters with a baby sound. This is quite strange because we had both Pepper and Dotty about four and a half months ago and knew at the time that Dotty was a month younger. Pepper got her grown up voice within a few weeks but after all this time Dotty hasn’t. It is as if she is staying a baby. Pepper is so vocal and yet Dotty never goes “boc boc” just twitters, yet she is much older than Pepper was when she found her voice.

It is amazing how different they all are. Pepper and Dotty are the same breed and are really close but are still so different. They do seem to pair up a lot of the time with Pepper and Dotty together and Treacle and Bluebell together. When I have looked through the coop door at bedtime Pepper and Dotty are always on the top perch and Treacle and Bluebell on the bottom perch, which makes sense as the two smaller girls are on top and the bigger ones at the bottom where there is more space. They all perch on the same side though. They also all sit together on the big outside perch and all dust bath together so most of the time despite any differences they all hang out together. It is amusing seeing their different personalities develop and they are always entertaining.

After a few days of no rat droppings we thought we had cracked the problem but we were wrong! The droppings started to appear again and our hearts sank. I started looking again for any vulnerable parts and wondered if although the big shed is on concrete, maybe there was enough gap underneath it for them to squeeze through.

We emptied and moved out the storage cabinet again. To my horror there was a huge pile of pellets stored behind it and it was only a few days since we had pulled it out and cleaned behind it. My husband said he didn’t think this was where they were getting in but just where they were storing the food. Even so just to be on the safe side we put a baton of wood in front of the shed.

My husband then realised that we had the same gaps up against the louvred boards of the shed as the gaps we had filled with foam on our side. This time my husband cut blocks of wood to nail in front of each gap.

Each gap covered by a block of wood

This was a bit time consuming but I think it will be worth it. In the corner my broom hangs and in front of that my little chair.

The next space I thought was a week point was where the patio joins next doors fence, there is a strip of earth which we had covered with bricks which were left in our garden when we moved in (again my husband saves everything for future use).

We pulled the coop out and my husband lifted the bricks, then cut some strips of weld mesh. He pushed the weld mesh under the fence and put the bricks back on top. I hammered stones into any gaps between the uneven shaped bricks. We hoped these measures would do the trick but were beginning to lose confidence by now.

The following morning I went out to inspect and sure enough there were mouse and rat droppings once again, but as we are making it harder for the rats, they in turn are making it easier for us to see where they are getting in and out.

We moved out the coop and could see that they had pushed the weld mesh up to squeeze underneath. The stones that I had hammered in had been pushed out (how strong are they!).

We also saw that there were two holes dug under the tiles we had put inside the fence. My husband thinks they were digging their way back out again. With a lot of complaining we set to work again.

We removed the bricks and this time my husband nailed the weld mesh to our side of the fence, then over the gap, overlapping the patio and replaced the bricks back on top.

The bricks on top of the weld mesh which has been nailed to the fence

We then took out the tiles from in front of the fence and my husband dug a trench. He then replaced the vertical tile, then laid a horizontal tile in front of it before filling in the trench. This will make it much more difficult for anything to dig under. We are determined that after putting in so much work on this, we will not be beaten by them.

Next morning was the moment of truth and there were only a few mouse droppings, no rat droppings and no more signs of digging. The following morning I only found one single mouse dropping. We have seen no sign of rats for a few days now so are hopeful that we really have stopped them getting in. We are hoping that now they can’t get in they have moved on. I will be keeping a very close check on it each day.

Treacle loves to get on my shoulder at every chance she can. I’m not quite sure why she likes it so much, but any time I crouch down she is straight up there.

I have been trying to get some close up shots of the girls because I want to do a post about their very different personalities, but every time I crouch down Treacle jumps on to my shoulder. Yesterday Bluebell also jumped on my arm so I was stuck with my camera in my hand and Bluebell on that same arm and Treacle on my shoulder. How am I meant to take photos like that? Then for the first time Treacle pooped down the back of what I call my “chicken cardigan” (old and scruffy and doesn’t matter if it gets messy). I put the slightly smelly cardigan in the wash and put on my fairly new and smarter one. I went back to try again to get the shots I wanted, but tried not to crouch down as I didn’t want to mess up this cardigan.

I stood near the coop and the next minute Treacle was on the coop roof stretching out towards me. She is a determined character but I was also determined to keep my cardigan clean and stepped away. Bluebell soon joined her as she doesn’t like to miss out on anything.

Treacle and Bluebell on the coop roof

Something overhead catches their attention

A bird flew overhead and they both stretched their necks upward. I love this photo as it reminds me of the characters in the animated film “chicken run”.

This evening when my “chicken cardigan” was washed and dried, I went back in with the girls taking my camera with me. Once again as I crouched down, Treacle jumped to my shoulder. At that moment my husband came in to see what we were doing. He took the camera from me and took a couple of photos of us.

Treacle loves to get on my shoulder

Bluebell circles me looking for a way up too

I feel mean when I try to stop her doing this but with all the recent rain their feet are so muddy and that’s without an occasional poop down the back. It is lovely though that she is determined to sit on me. Bluebell always circles me going “boc boc” as she really wants to get up too. It will be nice when it’s summer again and I can sit on my little chair and let them sit on my lap once more.

Hurrah! I think we may have cracked it. After blocking up all the holes and gaps we have stopped rats getting in. I pick up then sweep the patio each day just before the chickens go to bed, so that first thing in the morning I can check for droppings easily.

I asked on the “Down The Lane” forum if mice could get through weld mesh. Lots of people said that they could. One person said that they had read that mice have movable plates in their sculls to allow them to pass through the smallest of gaps. If their scull will go through so will the rest of their body.

For days now I have found no droppings at all and this morning I found one single mouse dropping by the feeder. From this I am concluding that mice can get through the weld mesh. I am happy if rats can’t get in and I can pick up a few mouse droppings each morning if I see any. If they can get through weld mesh, we feel there is nothing further we can do about that. I am feeling much happier about the security of the enclosure now and will continue to keep a close eye on the situation.

There also seems to be a change happening within the flock. So far Pepper has been top hen but lately Treacle has started to challenge her. Treacle has lightly pecked at Pepper a few times but Pepper doesn’t seem to be overly worried about it. Pepper and Treacle have also done a lot of running at each other with hackles raised and chests out. They seem to both be trying to take top hen position.

Treacle has also pecked at Dotty when she gets in her way at the treats feeder. All of this seems to have had the side effect of calming Dotty down. Dotty has hardly pecked at Bluebell at all over the last few days. I don’t mind which girl out of Pepper and Treacle take the position of top hen as they are both placid. I wouldn’t want to see a bully like Dotty at the top. If Treacle was top she may keep Dotty down a bit. I realize it is ever changing at the moment but it would be nice if Dotty grew out of the habit of terrorising Bluebell. I can but hope.

I cant believe this is my 100th post. When I started this I wasn’t at all sure that I could do it. My son Steve insisted that I could and that he would help me. He set it up for me and showed me what to do. Steve is in I.T. which is very useful. He wrote me my own program which we call ” the blog resizer”. He knew that if it was too difficult for me to put photos on, I wouldn’t bother and he said that photos are such an important part of a blog. He showed me how to put my photos into the resizer and then onto my blog and they will always be the right size. At first I struggled and had all my instructions written down but soon got the hang of it and now no longer need them. Steve said I could call him when ever I needed his help as this was our project and helps keep us close. I did used to call him in the early days with problems but haven’t needed to for a long time now.

I got my chickens four months ago and really love having them. I wanted to record everything. I thought at first that I wouldn’t have much to say but soon found that there was always something new going on with my flock. I have totally surprised myself by how much I have written and can’t believe I have produced 100 posts in four months when I have never done anything like this before and am a complete technophobe. I have enjoyed it more and more along the way and it’s lovely to get comments sometimes too as I didn’t think anyone but my family would ever read it.

To celebrate this 100th post I thought I would put in some photos of the things my girls like doing best, apart from eating treats that is!

We love scratching together

We love dust baths together

We are ready for our close up

We love perching together

Although the second dust bath photo is a bit cropped, I loved the close up of their faces. And yes Steve, this is my best perching shot yet! I love the way that although Pepper is the only one facing me, as soon as I got close to them, they all turned to look at me. I do so love having my chickens and can’t imagine life without them now.

Yesterday morning I went out to the chickens as they were coming out and inspected for droppings to see if blocking up the gaps had worked. I was really disappointed to see a couple mouse droppings by the feeder and even worse about five rat dropping in front of the storage cabinet.

We searched for gaps and my husband concluded that cable ties were not good enough to hold the chicken net to the weld mesh. He thought that a rat could push its way in between and we started  thinking of other ways to secure it. I came up with the idea of pulling the net down to the wooden beam, nailing it, then nailing a baton of wood over it. Off we went to the D.I.Y. store for more wood. Husband says are we never going to stop spending money on these chooks and working on their home!

I started to remove the cable ties with a craft knife (I had made extra work by adding loads more cable ties the day before) and very soon managed to cut my finger with the knife rendering me useless to continue the job. My husband took over and completed the job, securing the wooden batons. We both agreed this looked much neater and wondered why we didn’t do this in the first place (hind sight is a wonderful thing!).

Strip of wood securing the chicken net to the weld mesh

Side of enclosure with the wooden strip attached

We then decided to check round the inside and make sure there were no more gaps that we may have missed. It was then that I noticed an entry point point where the rat had dug in. We have a jasmine in the corner of the patio area that we had planted by lifting out one slab, before we had chickens. We had decided to leave it in as a bit of interest for them and us.

We now have a new entry point

On the other side of the fence is our water butt which is why we hadn’t noticed it from that side. I think that the rats were probably coming through the gaps in the corrugated roof and that once they were blocked up they have found another way in. This wasn’t like this yesterday. I filled the hole with stones then piled more of these pebbles on top (we had these from a broken water feature that was in the garden when we moved in and which we removed).

The gap filled and pebbles heaped on top

We then needed to address the other side which involved more work as this is where the water butt that takes the rain water from the chickens roof is situated. Moving this meant emptying the full water butt. We realised that there were also gaps where the the fence panels are butted up against the big shed which makes the end wall of the enclosure. Like the gaps in the corrugated roof there are gaps made by the staggered slats of the shed not allowing the fence to fit flush against it. Husband decided maybe we could make use of the insulating foam after all. He squirted it in the gaps and when it had set trimmed it off and replaced the water butt.

Foam in the gaps against the shed

The foam is trimmed and the water butt is back in place

We really do feel all the gaps are filled now and are fairly confident that nothing will be able to get in. My husband kept saying we may have done lots of the work for nothing when that wasn’t where they were getting in but I think like a leak, if you block it up the next weakest spot leaks. I think you have to block every possible gap and think it’s all been worth doing if it now solves the problem. Husband did feel better about being able to use the foam rather than it being a wasted purchase though. We are not sure long term if a rat could chew through it, but at least if that was the case we would see it and would come up with something else.

This morning I went in to do my chores and check for new droppings and I was bitterly disappointed. Again there were a few mouse droppings and more rat droppings.

We started trying to work out where else they could get in. I suggested the most vulnerable side was the fence bordering our neighbours. The top end of the enclosure is up against our big shed which is stood on concrete. Our side of the enclosure is against the patio and a concrete path. The bottom end backs on to our veg plot and the weld mesh has been dug down and inwards on the inside. On the outside my husband dug a trench and lined it with vertical tiles, then horizontal tiles, filling it back in with earth. Behind the fence bordering our neighbours garden, they have wooden decking which comes part way up our fence in height. When the guys were building the chicken enclosure for us, they thought the decking would keep out foxes or any predators (to be fair they weren’t thinking rats) and the bushes up against the fence made it difficult to put anything in on our side. We went back out to check this side and this is what we found.

New entry points either side of the shrub

You can just see a hole between the compost bin and the shrub and another just by the wooden logs. As I said before about leaks finding another weak point, I think that now that we have blocked up all the other gaps, the rats are finding new ways in. My husband was really down hearted about this as to deal with this means digging in mud and somehow trying to get behind the bushes.

We have a lot of tiles stored beside the shed, left over from our loft conversion years back (my husband keeps everything in case it will come in useful one day), and it often does! The plan was to try to sink the tiles down in front of the fence. My husband started digging and putting the tiles in place, while I crawled on hands and knees under the big bush to see what I could do there. It was really difficult as the bush is flush up against the fence and the gap beside it, is really awkward to squeeze through. I had to bodge it together as best I could. I dug, then hammered a tile in as far I could, then sunk a big piece of wood in front of it.

Me and my girls helping!

My husband took this as he found it amusing that where ever I am, the girls are right behind me. It also shows how tricky it is to get under here.

Tiles buried in the ground

This was the best I could do in this corner

We have now spent three days working on our “finished” chicken enclosure and each time we hope this will be the end of it. I don’t think there is anything else we can do and hope, hope, hope that this stops them getting in.

I know in the same way as I got obsessed with getting the best perching photo, I have now become obsessed with getting the best photo of the chickens coming out of the coop in the morning. In my last attempt I only actually caught Bluebell coming out because of the delay with the flash. As I was out before the chickens again this morning, I decided to have another go and click each time just before I thought I needed to. It was just after twenty past seven so it is getting a little later each day. Again I could hear the chickens behind the door waiting to get out, then the door started to rise.

Dotty is peeping out with Pepper’s beak just slightly in view

Dotty is out closely followed by Pepper

Bluebell squeezes through next

Treacle squeezes out last

They seemed to squeeze through quicker than ever with the door only about a third of the way up.

I was disappointed that as soon as they were all out Dotty turned to Bluebell and pecked her on the head. I had thought yesterday that she seemed a bit better and wondered if I was over reacting to her bullying, but they had only been out for seconds and it was the first thing she did. Dotty seems to peck her at any time now rather than just over treats but she does seem to have better and worse days so for now I will just keep an eye on her

We started this task yesterday and managed to get all the gaps filled which was our priority. We had to finish as it was time for the chickens to have a bit of quiet wind down time before bedtime, so left the tidying up of edges until today.

I had the easier job of adding more cable ties between the existing ones and luckily we already had these left over from the original job.

The difficult task was filling the gaps in the plastic corrugated roof. My husband had the idea of squirting in some insulation foam so we bought a tube of this and some wood for the gate. Husband soon found the foam wasn’t going to work. It was really tricky to get the right flow and without a back to the gaps there was nothing to stop it falling through the other side. It was also really awkward to reach the gaps, he soon had as much of it on himself as in the roof. We tried to think of something else. I wondered if we could cut discs of wood to fit the gaps but husband said this would be impossibly time consuming and there was nothing to fix it to. He then had one of his brainwaves. We could use the chicken net we had left over from the original job to create a false ceiling underneath the corrugated roof. Luckily we had enough net leaving just a small amount over in case repairs are ever needed. We set about pinning it up, first with drawing pins to get it in place then with nails. He said he would later tidy up the end with strips of wood but wanted to get on with the gate before it got too late.

My Husband nailed strips of wood down the sides inside the gate and on the bottom of the gate. He then nailed a log to the top of the gate. The logs came out of the garden when we were making changes and were saved for any future use.

We felt this was all as rodent proof as possible as now the biggest gaps are in the weld mesh itself. I measured these and was surprised that they are an inch square. We are not sure if a mouse can get through weld mesh but are sure that now nothing else can get through.

This morning when I went out to do my chores there was no sign of any droppings. We set to work finishing yesterdays task. My husband tidied up the edges of the net by using strips of wood on two sides and the logs on the other side to match with the door. We then moved the coop out and I swept and cleaned underneath it as well as the rest of the patio area. I then emptied the store cabinet and cleaned out the mouse droppings from underneath it. When it was back in place my husband pinned strips of wood round the bottom edges so that no mice could get under it. I will now know if all this has worked if I see any further droppings as we have given it a good spring (or should I say autumn) clean.

Extra cable ties before they are trimmed off

A false net ceiling underneath the corrugated roof

The gate with a log over the top and strips of wood at the sides and bottom

The log seals the net and you can see the foam above which was our first idea

We feel we have now done everything we can and I will be looking out for any more droppings. We seem to have put in so much work on our chicken enclosure and my husband always says this must be the finished job by now! We feel sure we have filled all the gaps now and I will report if I find any mouse dropping as this the only thing that may be able to get through weld mesh, but I am hoping not.

I have known for some time that we have a mouse or mice getting into the chicken enclosure because I can see mouse droppings through the slats of the storage cabinet on the floor below. I wasn’t surprised as we have seen an occasional field mouse in the garden and they are so small that they can get through the smallest of gaps. I wasn’t too worried because while they are going under the storage cabinet to defecate, it is away from the chickens and I resigned myself to emptying the cabinet now and again to clean underneath.

Yesterday morning for the first time I found rat droppings at the side of the storage cabinet. We have never had a rat problem here before. This is much more worrying and we started to think of ways to solve this problem.

This morning I found some different droppings beside the storage cabinet. These droppings were slightly bigger, fatter and longer than rat droppings. I looked up animal droppings on the internet and think that they are squirrel droppings. This would make sense as we have many squirrels visiting our garden. We have a strip of woodland behind our garden, then a golf course. We had started thinking of how to eliminate rats but realize there is no way of  stopping squirrels so think the next step is to block up any gaps. I took a photo of the “squirrel poop” so that any one with experience can give me their thoughts. I didn’t bother photographing the rats droppings because I am familiar with them.

I think this is squirrel poop

I know most people would think that the first plan of action should be to make sure there is no food supply left out, but in the summer the chickens come out at five in the morning and I go out to them at seven. I wanted to be able to leave their food out at all times so that it is always ready for them without me having to go out at five.

We carefully inspected where all the gaps are so that we can plan blocking them off. The most difficult gaps to deal with are under the corrugated plastic roof as this is such an awkward shape.

The gaps under the corrugated roof

These gaps are an inch high and two inches across. We also need to allow the rain water to drain into the gutter. This poses a tricky problem.

The other small gaps are over the gate, under the gate and very slim gaps at the sides of the gate.

Gap over the top of the gate

The other possible place where a squirrel may be getting in is where the chicken net over the enclosure, overlaps the weld mesh. We had secured this with cable ties but noticed a dip in the chicken net as if it had been stood on and a bit of a gap appearing between the cable ties. We think a squirrel may have opened a gap big enough to squeeze through. This was the easiest problem to remedy as all it needed was to put lots more cable ties in between the existing ones. The photo below is where the net overlaps the weld mesh but doesn’t really show any gaps but I included it anyway for another reason. My husband asked me to grab my camera this afternoon as Treacle was perching on top of the umbrella. As you can probably guess by the time I got out there she was strolling around the run looking  totally innocent, but the dirty mark on the umbrella is the spot where she was perched. As our biggest chicken I was surprised that she could fly to that hight!

Dirt on umbrells where Treacle was perched

It’s the biggest patch of dirt half way up the umbrella that marks Treacle’s spot. The black dots above the wood are the cable ties, pulled tight and then trimmed.

Luckily my lovely husband is pro active and good at coming up with ideas. He assured me we will solve all the problems. He said we can treat the gate like a door and put wooden strips above, below and down the sides to block the gap. He had an idea that insulating foam could be used to fill the gaps in the corrugated roof.

We went to our local D.I.Y. store for supplies and set to work to get as much done as possible today with the intention of continuing tomorrow. I will continue this post tomorrow when all the jobs are completed. Lets just say some ideas worked and one had to be rethought.

This morning I went out to the chickens at quarter past seven and found the coop door shut again. I went back indoors for my camera to photograph their coming out. I could hear them bumping about behind the door and at twenty past seven it started to open. This time Pepper was out first flattening herself down to squeeze through as soon as possible with Dotty popping out right behind her. Treacle was next to squeeze out this time with Bluebell last. Unfortunately the photos don’t show this very well because with the low light level the flash delays the photo and by the time it goes off they are already through. They are so quick and are all out in seconds, before the door is even half way up. This rush to get out is quite amusing to watch and now that they are getting used to me being there they come and say hello to me first, which is quite sweet. They are probably just checking if I have anything for them but it’s lovely all the same.

Pepper scrabbled out first followed closely by Dotty

Treacle pushed her way out next while the door was less than half way up

Today Bluebell was last to step through

The coop door fully open for comparison

You can see by this photo how impatient they are to get out, they can’t wait for the door to lift right up.

This morning was the latest that the door has opened and I am going to have to adjust the time I go out to them. I have always gone out at seven apart from going out at five occasionally in the summer to check what time the door opened. In the summer it was opening at five in the morning and closing at eight in the evening. It is now opening after seven in the morning and closing before seven in the evening. I feel quite sorry for the chickens having their days so shortened by the lack of light but I guess that’s what chickens have always been used too. I can’t help thinking summer is a much nicer time for them but I suppose that goes for us too. Soon the clocks will go back an hour. That will effect my routine too, but of course it will make no difference to the chickens.

I don’t get as much time to sit with them before bedtime as I did in the summer because I used to go out to them after our seven o’clock evening meal and now go out to them before our evening meal and have to shorten my time to get dinner cooked. I don’t sit on my little chair so that they can come on my lap because their feet are so dirty in winter. I do crouch down among them though and Treacle sometimes jumps on to my arm or on to my shoulder. Bluebell always circles me looking for a way up but is not able to jump to my shoulder as easily as Treacle. Pepper always looks on with interest.

The problem with Dotty bullying Bluebell is getting worse. It used to be just around the treats but now for no reason at all she will go up to Bluebell and peck her on the head or the back. Although I spray her with water when I see her doing this it doesn’t seem to deter her. Bluebell is becoming quite nervy around her and when I leave she comes to the furthest corner and looks at me as if to say she doesn’t want me to leave her. Dotty has also taken to flying up at me when I am at the storage cabinet. They all know this is where the treats are kept and come to stand by me but Dotty now flies up if I open the cabinet or if I am holding something she thinks may be treats. Dotty is becoming a pest and I don’t know what to do next. I am wondering if I should try separating her from them during the day. I had hoped she would grow out of this and that I wouldn’t have take further action but it’s becoming more of a problem. Dotty is also the one that has no interaction with me or my husband. I used to think that maybe she didn’t like me because I spray her when she pecks Bluebell but my husband pointed out that she doesn’t appear to like anyone. We have had her for four months and from a month younger than the other three and yet she is not attatched  to me like they are. My husband says he thinks she is just not a nice character. At the moment I feel that if someone could give her a good home I would let her go. I hate myself for thinking this but am so fed up with her behaviour and feel she spoils the harmony of the flock. I will carry on for now and think about it a while longer.