{"id":31772,"date":"2020-09-09T10:49:59","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T10:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=31772"},"modified":"2020-09-09T14:01:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T14:01:49","slug":"new-girls-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=31772","title":{"rendered":"New girls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We have two new girls. At the beginning of August I put my name on the list with my serama breeder for new girls. She was selling them so fast that they were going out from a few days old to a week old and nothing was staying with her beyond a week. She takes back any that turn out to be boys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t want to do that and after my experience with little chicks and having Blue turn out to be a boy so I now go on her waiting list instead. This means that at the end of the year if she has any unsold that have reached about three months she lets me know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday the breeder e-mailed me to say that she had a few older girls. I arranged to go over to her after lunch. I had put my name on her list for silkie girls too but she only had a few silkie feathered girls and someone else was in front of me on the list. She is keeping me on the list so I may get some later in the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a lovely brown and white frizzle but I have promised myself never to have another frizzle after Dandelion as I don’t think the frizzle feathered girls are hardy enough for winters outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were only a few to choose from but I was happy as they were pretty colours. I chose a white one and a pale grey and white one. By the end of the day I had named them Sugar and Shadow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breeder sold me some chick crumb and I will keep the new girls separated until the few remaining laying girls stop laying. Then I will put all the girls on growers pellets until the new girls are ready to start laying and will gradually start integrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I closed off the triangular part of the run and put a nest box in there for them. I set up a dish of chick crumb and of water on some tiles as a feeding station and added two water bottles as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New girls yesterday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Exploring their new home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Shadow calling because she had lost sight of Sugar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shadow was crying out because she couldn’t find Sugar. Sugar appeared to have vanished. Eventually I lifted the nest box and found her underneath. As soon as they were together again they were quiet. I have now heaped the soil around the edge of the nest box so that they can’t get underneath. These two girls are already bonded and can’t bear to be out of sight of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had put them in the nest box and closed it for five minutes in the hope that they would then know that this is where to go at bedtime. It didn’t work and at near dusk they were still outside. I put them in and closed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went out at seven o’clock this morning and opened the nest box. I went back at eight o’clock and they were still inside. I guided them down the ramp. They have since returned to the nest box a few times so I am hoping that tonight they will be able to find their way in on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sugar and Shadow this morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On the move<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Drinking together<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They soon got the hang of both the dishes of chick crumb and water and the water bottle too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we got back home yesterday there was a surprise for us. Speckles went into the nest box the day before and I wondered why she was in the nest box but didn’t think any more of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday afternoon when we got back there was a large white egg just inside the pop hole of the chicken shed. I know this is Speckles egg because Flame stopped laying a week ago and her eggs always have little clusters of calcium bubbles on. Ebony’s eggs are smaller and are beige and at the moment dusty as she had suddenly taken to laying them in the shelter instead of the nest box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that the new girls have this area it will stop Ebony from laying her eggs in there. This egg was larger in size, more oval in shape and was smooth and white. There is no doubt that it is Speckles egg. It is her first egg of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well done Speckles! That was so unexpected and I can’t believe that she waited until we were out to lay it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Speckles egg on the left, Ebony’s egg in the middle and Spangle’s egg on the right<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Only Ebony and Spangle were laying until this egg. I wonder if that will be her only one this year or if she will lay another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will report back tomorrow with news of whether the new girls find their own way in tonight. They have cottoned on to the food and water very quickly so I am sure that they will soon get the hang of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other girls have taken no notice at all of the new arrivals so that bodes well too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have two new girls. At the beginning of August I put my name on the list with my serama breeder for new girls. She was selling them so fast that they were going out from a few days old … 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\/31772"}],"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=31772"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31819,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31772\/revisions\/31819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}