{"id":14583,"date":"2016-03-20T18:48:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T18:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=14583"},"modified":"2016-03-21T10:02:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T10:02:15","slug":"a-momentous-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=14583","title":{"rendered":"A momentous decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

After saying that Honey seemed to be doing more plucking than Topaz we have caught Topaz going for Emerald and Butterscotch’s necks today. Emerald now has a much longer white streak on her neck.<\/p>\n

I am at my wits end with this. I can’t bare to think of it becoming a habit throughout the flock and ending up with all the girls plucked.<\/p>\n

I went to Jackie’s to have a chat about it as she had half intimated on Friday that she might consider taking Topaz. She is at a stage of thinking of having more girls and has been undecided for a while and she also thinks Topaz is beautiful, which she is.<\/p>\n

The reason that I think Topaz will be okay with Jackie’s three girls is that she is a feisty top hen who couldn’t wait to get at my flock when I was doing the introductions and in minutes had shown my big girls that she was now top hen. I feel that she will be able to stand up to big girls.<\/p>\n

We agreed that if for any reason this didn’t work out then I would have her back and even if that happened the break from my flock may be enough to break her of the plucking and perhaps take her down a peg or two.<\/p>\n

This has been another difficult decision but I have to do what will be in the best interests of the flock. My husband is going to visit Jackie with me tomorrow to see how we can adapt her run to separate Topaz for the beginning of introductions.<\/p>\n

I took some photos of Topaz today with a lump in my throat but at least she will only be five minutes away for me to visit.<\/p>\n

\"Topaz\"<\/a>

Topaz<\/p><\/div>\n

\"She<\/a>

She always looks grumpy<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Grumpy\"<\/a>

But she is beautiful<\/p><\/div>\n

I am thinking of separating Honey for a while to see if I can break the habit but I am not totally convinced this will work. Worst ways I would rather have missing bottom feathers than bare necks and heads.<\/p>\n

This is going to be a bit of trial and error but I am so lucky to have Jackie to help with this. Thank you Jackie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After saying that Honey seemed to be doing more plucking than Topaz we have caught Topaz going for Emerald and Butterscotch’s necks today. Emerald now has a much longer white streak on her neck. I am at my wits end … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14583"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14638,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14583\/revisions\/14638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}