We picked the girls up from Ashford at 10am this morning, which is an hour's drive away. The re-homing woman (that's what they call the people who find homes for ex-battery hens) let us pick out our three new family members. I felt awful only having to pick 3, and very sorry for the scrawniest looking ones, but she assured me that they would all find homes over the coming days. We picked out three who looked like that had nice personalities and a good amount of feathers and here they are:
Aren't they posing well for the camera? We have named them Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch which are 3 coastal towns in Kent and the name of a small gauge steam railway. Our friend, Chris, suggested the names and they just seemed so perfect! They weren't very organised in this photo so didn't stand in the right order so, left to right, you can see: Hythe, Dymchurch and Romney.
Let me introduce you to them all individually:
Hythe looks very healthy, her comb is very upright which is supposed to be a good sign. She does, however, seem to be a little bit of a bully and I caught her pecking Dymchurch's bare bottom where she's featherless. I read that this could happen when there are feathers missing so it's a good job we have the week off to keep an eye on them. Here she is:
Dymchurch was the one that we named first - she didn't look in a good way when we got her out of the box and took a while to start exploring so "Dym" seemed to fit. She's much better now though and is moving around a lot. I know parents aren't supposed to have favourites but if I did, she would be it:
Romney hasn't let her personality come out just yet - she spent the first couple of hours sitting in the dirt box under the coop pecking at grass but is now out and about with the others girls. She has a bit of a bare chest at the moment but hopefully she'll grow some feathers there to preserve her dignity!
When they first arrived they were all pretty stationary but in no time they started exploring. This is them having a good look around:
I'm amazed at how much more confidence they've gained in just a few hours, it's lovely! They haven't yet ventured into the coop although Hythe made it halfway up the ramp, had a quick look, then turned around again. Darkness is a new thing for them, as is grass, bird song, bees, flies and a whole manner of things so it's lovely seeing them explore. We have to try to encourage them into their coop tonight and onto their perches to sleep so I hope we've given them enough room and shredded paper to lay eggs in! They are designed as layers so there is a possibility that they might lay straight away but we'll see. As the week progresses I'm sure we'll get to know them much better and hopefully get to taste our first home laid eggs!
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