Desperate Hazel!!!!!!!!

Well, the girls know where the door is now. Every time we go anywhere near the run they make a break for the door, hoping that I'm about to chuck something yummy through it! Yummy is a very broad term mind, it could be corn, worms, fruit, cabbage, lettuce.... wouldn't make the most of us do back flips, but the girls literally climb over eachother to reach it first.... Once at the door should it open they ALL huddle and try to squeeze through it at the same time....... A tricky manouvre with me with my knee in the door, a bowl of goodies AND coops trying to wedge himself through from the other side!!!

Anyway...................... when you have to bodily go in you have to sort of flap the top half of the front down, stop coops from doing a sneaking high jump, bend at a strange angle and lauch yourself in whilst of course carrying treats and a back sack to sit on, as you wouldn't want to get a dirty bum! Nick of course in waiting patiently and laughing ready to hold the flap up once I am in and covered in rabbid chooks scrabbing about for food!!!!

So, the flap was undone.... we began to open while cooing nicely for them to wait nicely, when Hazel takes a running jump and is up through the 6inch gap in a jiffy!!!!!!!! Not good... she was silent and deadly! I was so shocked but managed to 'catch' her by her very skinny body and wedge her against my chest! We then forced the flap shut with her still squashed in my hands - painful! I was trying very carefuly to put her down, but the angle made it impossible and she made a flappy 'plop' onto the floor looking very put out!!!!

Man they know what's out there and are desperate to find it!!!

A three egg day!!!!!!!!!!

Well, how lucky are we!!!!!!!!!!

I went out this morning only to find 2 very light coloured eggies in the nesting box!!! Now I know that one belonged to Penny, Margo lays fairly dark brown speckled eggs, so it's not hers... so am guessing that Sweetie is responsible. Nick had found her lurking in the nesting box over the weekend just getting a feel of the place :-))) so maybe it is her... her comb is still quite small, but maybe she an early starter!!!

When I went out there later, there was margo's one warm and waiting for me!! Clever girl.... she's always an after noon girl!!!

I took 4 small eggs in a box over to nannys, our first gift of eggs! We are very proud of our girls.. now though we'd like them to concentrate on producing one over 40gms, that seems to be the ceiling at the moment!

We also gave them a few crusts cut up as a treat today, and the yummed it up! Will remember that one... have put their Bokashi bran in a cup and they've scoffed that down too, so maybe i'll stop putting it in their food now......

Clever, clever girls!!!

Bedtime

At 8.40, we tip toed up the garden to see what was occuring! It's a truely amazing thing but they were they lined up in a row to make their way up the ladder.... very strange.. so we came back in...

8.50 we went back up again and only two left!!!! Hazel was in and out alot.... but eventually she was up there, and as soon as her tail feathers were in - Shoop! It was shut!

Night girls....

Coopers great home coming!!!

So the time came on saturday to go and collect Cooper from Claires where he'd been having a luxurious holiday! We could have left it until sunday, but in for a penny, in for a pound!

He already knew that something was going on, because the odd construction that had been occuring in his garden.... so we explained to him that he had some new playmates in the garden at home waiting for him and that they were all going to get on famously....... It was obvious however, that he was not listening as he hates the car and clearly had his paws in his ears with his head pointing the other way!!!!

We parked in the hole in the back and let him out and he scampered up the steps to make his way in, when he stopped dead! There was something in the house!!!! Man he flew over there like a rocket - the girls unfortunately were not ready to recieve visitors and went completely mad, which threw Coops into a flurry which made them squeak and fly back and forward up and down the run, bumping into the perches and sides, feathers everywhere... mess......

We got coops to make a sharpe exit, and those of you who know him know the only way to do that is pick him up and run for the house! the girls settled immediately, but there was a bit of blood on some beaks from too much bashing occuring.

Coops then became a soldier at his post by the back door! We decided on approach number two.... we took him up there on a lead, much crying from him, and a small amount of clucking from them.......

Approach number three was to put him on his garden spike attached to his long lead and let him run about! The girls were fine with this, coops however was very frustrated!

We retired in doors... what to do???? We decided to go on the offensive with the water pistols which we got to stop the girls pecking at eachother, so why not use it on the dog???

Off we went back up there with coops on a lead and a fully loaded water pistol..... after many squirts and surprised looks he did eventually settled down... so we retired back in for a conference and much research on fencing!!!

OMG it's an egg!

Well....................... I was just on the phone to nanny and went up the see the girlies and THERE WAS AN EGG ON THE FLOOR!!!!!! Much jubilation!!! No idea who's responsible but, we certainly wasn't expecting one so soon.

I made poor Nick go in a rescue it in case it got trampled on! Penny was sitting next to it, but didn't look like she was owning up!!!

I rushed it still warm inside a straight to the scales! A whole 36gms. Small but perfectly formed. What a clever girl!!!

1st Morning

Well, we charged down the stairs fairly late, about 8am as we don't want them to get used to getting up too early.... I am always very conscious of Karen....

We swiftly collected the camera and hot footed it down the garden. Will me hovering at the door end Nick pushed the cube door open... We could hear feet scrabbling about and when it opened there they were all hogging the door way looking out as if to say 'blimey it's daylight, what shall we do now?'

Babette was the first one to make an exit attempt.... graceful is not a word that springs to mind I must say... the was a lot of noise as her feet tried to make contact with the ladder, and much flapping as she tried to keep her upright and steady.......... it didn't work... she flapped down and landed with a 'boof'. Then went like a rocket to the food! She was closely followed by Sweetie, also not a ballerina.... then they all came on mass, with much clucking and flapping.... Then all to the food for breakfast, it appears that there was a famine during the night!

Day one

So they spent today mooching about. They did come out from under the cube and babette went straight for the food!!! They were happy to be pecking about and kicking our newly laid bedding everywhere..... We sprinkled some mixed corn around and about and man they mad for that!! They are very quiet, but maybe that's because they were in shock after their long journey......

We spent the day marching up and down the garden wearing a hole in the newly recovered lawn, and they were pretty non plused, but fingers crossed they become more people friendly......

As the day came to an end, we were thinking 'How will they know when to go to bed?' 'Will they know what to do?' We've spent many an hour on the Omlet forum reading about people having to do all sorts to get their girls to bed including putting a torch in it went it's getting dark to 'show them the way', if it's the only light they can see the tend to go towards it...... others have had to physically put their girl into the cube for a few days... plus theres always the quandry of 'can they get up the ladder' which you know doesn't reach the floor.... not sure why, maybe it's to put FoxyLoxy off.....

At 8.30 we began another back and forward regieme up and down......... At about 9.00 Margo made leap onto the ladder, and the fell straight off again!!! But soon made another attempt, and this time made it into the cube... had a little walk about and then came out again.... so we came away.......

Five minutes later we went up there again and 2 were in the cube!! With another one on the ladder, so we came away again!!!!!!!

At 9.10 we went up there and they we nearly done one on the ladder another one patiently waiting.... then she made her way up... what clever girls they are!!!

We zipped the door shut and listened to them scrabbling about for a few mins and left them to it..... We did check back before we went to bed and SILENCE!!!!! Phew!!!!

Cant wait for day two!