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<\/a>Peaches was first to jump to the perches<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The girls spend some time scratching in the shavings<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Emerald and Topaz are first up as usual<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Half the girls are in<\/p><\/div>\n
It was at about this point that the trouble began. Topaz would not have Toffee or Emerald next to her. Toffee and Emerald would not have Peaches and Barley next to them. Peaches and Barley would not have Speckles next to them. Give me strength!<\/p>\n
Why is it that during the day the girls sit together, perch up together, congregate on the table together, take dust baths together and yet at bedtime they won’t tolerate having a lower ranking girl next to them.<\/p>\n
Peaches and Barley ended up still out on the patio at near dark. While I was taking photos of the girls in the shed, Peaches jumped to my shoulder twice. I took a selfie with no idea what was going to end up in shot.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Peaches jumps to my shoulder<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Butterscotch is in<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>There is a lot of unrest going on<\/p><\/div>\n
You can see in the photo above that Topaz is about to force Emerald down and Toffee has already been forced down and is looking for a way back up.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The final line up<\/p><\/div>\n
Finally just as the automatic door shut they had taken up their positions. I went out this morning to watch them jump down which is now a quick and easy process so that is one problem solved.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Getting ready to jump down, Peaches was last this time<\/p><\/div>\n
It wasn’t Butterscotch who was last down for a change. This is so much better for them. We fitted another perch to give them more space and hopefully resolve the squabbling at bedtime.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Another new perch on the left of the photo<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Peaches and Emerald check out the new perch<\/p><\/div>\n
Peaches and Barley don’t like the perches being lower but I am hoping that they will get used to it. There was a little less aggravation at bedtime but Peaches and Barley were last to go in and again jumped to my shoulder. Barley was first this time and later on it was Peaches again. I think they are looking to me to give them somewhere higher to perch.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Barley on my shoulder<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The final line up with Speckles on her own perch<\/p><\/div>\n
Poor Speckles got moved on from where ever she tried to perch and ended up on her own on the new perch.<\/p>\n
They were settled earlier tonight though so I think they will soon get used to it. I know they would prefer to perch higher but I need to know that they can get down easily in the mornings. I think after a few nights they will get used to the new set up and I am probably making things worse for them by opening the door and taking photos thus letting in light and sparking another bit of aggravation.<\/p>\n
I will leave them to it for the next few nights and see how it works out. Who would have thought this would be so difficult! I want to end up with an easy bedtime and morning routine and I think that sometimes there just has to be a bit of trial and error. I hope this is \u00a0going to be the end of the tweaking for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The process of perfecting the perch changes in the chicken shed has taken longer than I anticipated. It seems that each change throws up another problem. Last night we realised that we would need another perch. The bedtime routine took … Continue reading