Notes on mixing hens and pullets

So far not so good.... Godzilla ended up with both black and white feathers flying and can terrorize the new pullets easily. Pecking order is to be established, and it isn't a fair fight.

We've separated them in to a new protected temporary cage, but they are still stalked by Godzilla. Not idea, but we'll see how they go. In 4 weeks time they should be equal size but hopefully we don't need to wait quite that long.

Edit: So it looks like Godzilla spends much of the day menacing the other two despite the cage separating them. They also know their place and hide despite the protection.

Chickenflash: 1st October - Godzilla still menacing them through the cage although they are getting a little more brave and exploring sooner.

Chickenflash: 12 October - Gradual improvements in braveness from the pullets but looks like another fortnight before we'll mix them again. They are around 14 weeks old now.

I feel sorry for the neighbours....

So last weekend while we were down in Ballarat for a lovely wedding, we asked our goodly neighbours to look after our pets. No worries we thought. Easy. Free eggs as payment.

When we came back, we discovered that we were down to one chicken. There was a Godzilla but no Elvis. What had happened? The neighbour returned our keys the next morning and explained everything. Apparently on the first day they were looking after the chickens, there was already one less. Elvis was just lying there... so the nice easy job with eggs as payment didn't work out so well.

This weekend we drove down to Tahmoor to get some friends for Godzilla (and more eggs for us). We got a white one (Leghorn x New Hampshire) and a black one (Australorp x New Hampshire). They are 12 week old pullets and we've now just introduced them to each other and Godzilla. There's a bit of squabbling with sorting out the pecking order so it'll be interesting to see how well this goes......

Gardening update!

So now that the weather is getting better (a little too good today - what's with cracking 30 degrees already??) it's getting time to be a little more inspired to do the gardening. The tree fern has moved:

There's a clear view of how much work needs to be done to the retaining wall:

For that, I'm thinking the wall needs to go and so do the palms causing it to collapse. Then they can be replaced with something more sensible and hedge shaped.

We also have a little white tulip saying hello:

And a pink tulip up and coming:

Today there was also the creation of a chicken-free zone. This is the last time the chickens will be allowed to scratch up this patch of dirt.
Last but certainly not least, my parents gave us some orchids from the garden. They are still going strong 2 weeks later!