The Gang of Three

Well as some of you know I have been away from the cabin for a few days and kept the gang in their run. This has not been going well...

It starts like this..........

I go to let the girls out in the morning at 6am. Some days this is not early enough. Betty is kicking the door and banging on the window to get out, because it is time for her to lay her egg. Now she can and does sometimes lay in her house, but mostly she likes to lay in the cabin, next to the radiator.

Other days they are fast a sleep and don't want to wake until 7am. Alright for some, I have been up since 6am. I am beginning to understand who gets the lay in and it is not me.......

They have breakfast, layers mash ( chicken food), meal worms, sunflower heart, porridge and toast for Daisy, Corn on the cob for Dotty and Betty . Lots of variety. Bowl of clean water and sometimes for Betty if I have some, Cornflakes with milk.

After we have spent some time in the cabin, I go digging with them in the garden, to find some worms. Daisy is very quick at finding the worms with Betty being the slowest. And by golly she gets cross and starts pecking Daisy on the head. When this happens I try to split them up. Dotty in the mean time just gets on with it.

When I went for my Cupcake and Sugarcraft Course I had to leave at 7am, which meant I was up at 5am to get myself ready and then let the girls out at 6am. Before I went I cleaned them out and filled their run with Ivy as they love to peck this. So I tied lots to the sides of their run and added fresh water ( this is done daily). 

Betty and Dotty both thought I was putting them back to bed as it was still dark at 7am, but finally went in. But Daisy...... well she was not having any of it. Refusing to follow me down to her house and run, I tried to bribe her with Cheese,this did not work but Betty loved it. I then tried her with a whole corn on the cob, but she still refused to move. Dotty had that and loved pecking at it. Then I tried porridge with warm milk, Daisy loves this on a cold morning, but still refused and hid under the Ivy. Well time was getting on so I had no choice but to go in and get her out and what a noise she made, for someone so small she can wake the dead. Anyone would have thought she was being attacked by a fox!
Once they were locked away nicely in their run, with enough food for a party, off I went. One last look round to make sure they were fine as I locked up the cabin.. Daisy was staring back at me, frowning!!!!!
The next day the girls woke at 6am and Daisy refused to talk to me, usually she is very vocal, but that day she just gave me that look, "You left me all day and then locked us up late". Dotty was very quiet also. Both would not eat their toast, which I did think was strange.
Then Betty came into the cabin, having laid her egg in the hen house and well she stood in front of my chair and went for it crowing at the top of her voice, which at 6 in the morning when everything outside is very still and quiet, was loud. And if that was not good enough she proceeded to walk round the garden making all the noises possible for a chicken very loudly.
I can honestly say I have never been told off like that before and what made it worse was I felt I was being told off.

All day they followed me around and Betty was constantly disagreeing with every thing I did. It was not until 4pm just before bed did Daisy and Dotty forgive me. They jumped up on my lap the pair of them and roosted down and tucked their heads under their wings and fell to sleep....... only for 15 minutes. So I let them stay up until 5pm as I felt better that they had forgiven me.

Then I left the cabin to go to the Dickensian Christmas in Rochester, this time I was leaving at 11am which was not as bad as when I put them in their run as it was light. But it was cold and the ground was frosted and very hard. So out came the fork and I dug the run over. The girls went in their run with enough food for a party. They had a large tray of layers mash, cheese; lots of cheese, meal worms, porridge, corn on the cob, 2 lettuces and a bowl of rice and spaghetti. Betty loves rice. Daisy and Dotty love spaghetti as well as Betty. After locking them up , I checked they were OK and left for the day. This time I had someone to lock them up at 4.30pm once they had gone to bed.

 

 

I let them out at 6am and Betty and Daisy wanted to lay their eggs at the same time so there was a big disagreement on who was going first. Betty got into the box of straw first, Daisy got in and started to push her out, but Betty pushed back. Then Daisy got on to the chair opposite mine and then went for it, She crowed and grumbled and squawked and squawked, until Betty could not concentrate any more or had enough of Daisy telling everyone that would listen it was her turn to lay her egg first.She got out of the box of straw and let Daisy get in and lay her egg.  Once Daisy was finished Dotty decided she would just like to sit in the box of straw as it was nice and warm after Daisy had finished. Dotty laid her egg in the hen house so she was "chilled". But Betty was not impressed and decided she would get Dotty out by sitting on her, that did not work so she tried pushing her out of the box. That did not work either. So Betty stood right in front of her and crowed, grumbled and squawked just like Daisy. This carried on until Dotty had enough and got out of the box grumbling. Betty laid her egg and the rest of the day went well......... So I thought.

 

Now everywhere I go they all follow, when I leave the cabin to put the washing out, they follow, I walk back in they follow, I use the bathroom they follow and stand outside. If I am too long they start to get unsettled and Daisy starts her worry cry and this takes along time for her to calm down. She will not let you out of her sight, which is OK when its just one, but when they all start it takes a little longer to move around as I am herding three girls around instead of one.

 

This is going to be interesting when in go Christmas Shopping, perhaps they should ask Father Christmas for their own computer or iphones so we can keep in touch on Skype when I am shopping.........

 

Thanks for stopping by... see you soon........


Merry Christmas.

Dotty.

Hello everyone, sorry I have not been here for a few days. Dotty has been under the weather since Thursday. At first I thought it was just a little chill as Wednesday night was icy because of the snow, (which the girls don't like). But when Dotty did not improve on Friday I was getting a bit worried.

Dotty has been very quiet and not moving around much. She has spent most of the last three days sitting on my lap / shoulder going to sleep.  Dotty has been eating and drinking, which has been very positive but I was worried about this constant sleeping, especially on my lap.

When any of the girls are ill, they all just sleep on my lap, its their way of telling me that they are not feeling well, I think.......... As usually they never sit still. And Dotty has never been ill, so I was abit concerned.

Daisy has been very worried and would not leave her side, while Betty has been telling everyone very loudly that there is sometime wrong. So our three days have been a bit noisy.

I think it is due to her change over of egg laying. The girls need 14 hours of day light to keep their eggs flowing but now it winter they are up at 6.30 - 7am and off to bed by 4-4.30pm, which is just not enough day light hours. All free range chickens have this problem but I decided Sunday night that if Dotty did not come out of her house with a skip in her step she was off to the Doctors' (Vets) as I could not go through other day worrying. Also Daisy needed to be put at rest as she was worrying more that me. And Betty was heading for a sore throat with all her crowing.

So I let them out at 6.45am and Dotty came out first chatting and running to her box of straw in the cabin, settled down for half an hour, but has not laid an egg today. Though she is feeling much better, running around the garden eating everything she can find, anyone would think she has not been fed for a week but she seems alot better.

I'm going to keep an eye on her for a few more days, just in case. Daisy is a lot calmer and Betty has gone back to her normal self. Today we have had words about sharing breakfast and lunch......... we will see how dinner goes. At the moment she is sharing the corn on the cob!!!!!!

Oh the snow lasted one day!!!!! At least we can say it snowed this year... If we are lucky we may have some for Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by...... see you soon.