You didn’t think I’d leave you wondering, did you? :) 4 lovely new bantam girls made their way home to Snoskred Land today. 2 Gold and Grey Pekins, one Gold and Black Pekin, and one White Leghorn. My apologies, the photos are not brilliant, too much sunlight and the wire on the enclosure is very bright..
For info on these breeds – which are new to us so I’ve been reading up – Pekin Breed Profile – White Leghorn Breed Profile.
They were 3 totally separate lots, but it turns out that 2 of the lots must have been brought up together, because the 3 Pekin girls are super close and clearly used to each other. We nearly did not get the Gold and Black one, as we had 3 girls already. I am *so* glad we got her, because while I cannot have favourites, this new girl has me smiling..
I have called her Lizzy, because she has a lot of impertinent attitude, just like Elizabeth Darcy. Her black feathers have green and purple iridescence in the sunlight.
This is Mary and Kitty. You might be able to see they have slightly different coloured feathers on the head, one has nearly black and the other is more brown. The more brown one is Kitty, because she is slightly an airhead, whereas Mary is more serious and would probably be reading books, if chickens could read.
The White Leghorn is named Twiggy, after Twiggy from Hencam. Twiggy laid an egg on her way home from the auction!
Alas, Twiggy has a bit of a sneeze, which was noticed not long after the girls were put in the enclosure, so she was immediately removed back to a carrier cage, placed in a warm spot, and given a dose of antibiotic. She was also dusted with poultry dust which was on the agenda for all the new girls today but we were going to wait until they went to bed to do this.. Plus, she got some tuna, which she ate pretty quickly. She’ll be inside overnight where it is warm, and in the morning I’ll make a decision on whether she needs to see a vet or not.
We follow these excellent procedures via Hencam – diagnosing a sick chicken and we also keep a chicken medicine cabinet. We’ll keep an eye on her and see how she does, but she may spend the next few weeks isolated from *all* the other girls, which may mean some improvisation on our part so that she will get some lawn time.
This is why we (and most other chicken owners) quarantine new girls.. I just hope it isn’t anything too serious, and that the other girls did not pick it up in the short time they were together. Fingers crossed. :/
But I’ll uncross them momentarily to eat this pizza for dinner. Yes, that is broccoli, on a pizza. It’ll go in for 12 minutes at 200C, and then I’ll take it out and add final cheese and pepperonis on the top. If you have never had roasted broccoli, you will probably not understand putting broccoli on pizza. So, you need to try roasted cauliflower and broccoli ASAP.
Egg producing chickens would be such a lovely thing to have. I hope Twigfy recovers soon.