Wish me Luck

There are all sorts of ways to try and introduce new chickens to an existing flock. You can try the "let them get on with it from day one" approach -  but this scares me. 

What I've done in the past is have the new chickens in a wee house within the large run for a few days to let the other chickens see and smell them. Then I've let them out and watched like a hawk. This has gone surprisingly well. 

What I've done with Geraldine and Gertrude is take it one step further.

For a wee while, now, we've wanted to extend the run so that there is a close offable area that we can keep grassy, cos they do love lazing around in the sun stuffing their faces with grass.  Their existing run used to be knee deep in grass ~ now it's bare earth.

It was as good a time as any to do it as I'd read that if you can introduce new chickens to old ones in a new area then it may make things a bit easier. Something to do with territory.

So yesterday armed with tools and no knowledge ( how hard can it be?) I decided to extend the run, this was the easy part as all I had to do was make the fencing higher.  But, then I had to make and hang a new gate and cement in a new post to attach the gate to. It took me hours and many trips to the shed for more tools and a couple to the hardware shop for various hinges and cement. But I did it. And it was great fun ( would have been better if it wasn't raining) and actually really simple. I loved it.

Now Geraldine and Gertrude have their freedom. They seem to think the other chooks are friends and are hanging around them, so far the girls have been ignoring them a bit, walking around them but not pecking them.

 Mmmm globe artichokes are tasty.

Sparrow and Elizabeth seemed way more interested in Geraldine and Gertrude's food, which not surprisingly is exactly the same as theirs.

UPDATE
All is good in the land of chickens. No fighting at all.