New Arrivals

 

Two weeks ago my very kind cousin, James, donated these four bantams.  This donation was much to the gratitude and even relief of his wife, who feels the same way about chickens as mine!

The brown one is a pure breed Blue Laced Wyandotte; the white one a cross between a Blue Wyandotte cockerel and a white Cochin; and the two blue ones a cross between the same cockerel and White Spangled Hamburgs.

They are far more timid and flighty than my existing birds, and I clipped their wings immediately on getting them home, for they are much closer to discovering flight than the others, too.

These birds are a lot smaller than the existing flock.  Integration is an issue and is being managed carefully.  For the first two weeks the new birds were living in a “pen within a pen”, created with a bit of wire fencing which can be seen to the left of the photo.  The two sets of birds have been living with each other, but the larger hens have not been able to get at the smaller bantams.  I am hoping that they have been getting used to each other, and that their full integration will not be as vicious as it might otherwise be.

That full integration is taking place today.  The “pen within a pen” has been removed, and the birds are now going to have to live with each other.  So far so good.  There is an uneasy stand-off between the two groups.  The brown bantam is more integrated than the others, perhaps because it is the largest.  The white one is most certainly at the bottom end of the pecking order (which is still being established).  Tonight will be the “wedding night”.  Fingers crossed…

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