New Girls!

A busy day! Started with a walk for Oscar before meeting a fellow coop member on the plot and setiing up the coop and fence for the new girls. For the first ten days it's recommended to keep them seperate until they settle down. The small wooden coop needed shoaring up with bits of wood salvaged from my plot. Found out his mother had died friday so very decent of him to help. She had been staying with them and had been due to return home that day so very unexpected. He said he felt doing something was helpful. It's like being in limbo - what does one do when someone suddenly dies? I remember feeling the same when my dad and mum died unexpectedly and the day of their funerals. There is nothing you should or shouldn't do but one feels totally adrift.
After lunch it was another walk for Oscar. There are so many snowdrops in the woods - great swathes of them like bluebells! As we were making our way back the coop member who was getting the hens rang to see where I was! She was way earlier than she said she would be! She said they were all settled on their bit of the plot so no worries. I had time for a cup of tea then off to the plot to see the new girls!
Oh my they are so pretty! A lovely chocolate brown and cream colour! One is bald all down her front and two looking a little dishevelled, but one looks in peak condition! None of them have the swollen combs usually seen in ex battery hens - these are apparently free range organic - I think that means free to roam inside a shed with hundreds of others. They were certainly foraging on the plot quite happily and didn't seem bothered by my close proximity. The other hens were showing no interest in them! Hopefully come friday they can mingle together! 
Come dusk the fun started! Three went in, but then came out again! They all had a good drink of water then started foraging again! In the end I had to block off one side and gently shepherd them in! Ican't wait to see what size and colour eggs they lay! 
More of the new girls here if interested!