When 2 became 4

Well, what an exciting weekend we've had. At 2.30 on Saturday afternoon we made our way down the A25 to Biggin Hill and Foal Farm which, according to it's google listing is a rescue centre for "dogs, cats, kittens and puppies" but this weekend was home to a Battery Hen Welfare Trust re-homing day.



We were there to collect 2 more hens for our little flock. You may remember that our first hens were named after the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway so it was only fitting that our second brood kept the railway theme and were to be named Blue and Bell after the Bluebell railway so imagine our delight when this sign greeted us on the way in to the farm:



We were lucky to get the hens because there had been a 2 hour delay bringing the bulk of the "delivery" down from Coventry but we had the first collection time so ours had already been at the farm for 3 weeks. Matt helped the woman but them into their box while I kept a rather inquisitive goat at bay and we started our journey home.

We got them safely home and left them largely to their own devices yesterday to settle in - they were eating and drinking straight away but needed some help getting into bed last night but obviously had a good night's sleep because we were greeted with an egg this morning!

Once I was able to get a good look at them it was really obvious how far Rom and Hythe have come on. Blue and Bell are really pale and have loads of feathers missing and look generally a bit scraggy.

My first attempt to get a photo of them this afternoon didn't work out that well:



I managed to get Blue (who is the quieter and paler of the two) to stay still to get this shot:



but Bell has discovered the joy of digging do didn't stay still long enough so I'll have to get a photo at a later date.

I also wanted to get a photo to compare RomHythe to BlueBell (it's easier this way - like Brangelina) but this is the best I could get which does at least show size and colour differences which is quite striking:



Now, I know you're going to be judging me for not trying harder but there is a good reason that I couldn't get a better shot...just after this photo was taken Bell started squaring up to Rom (which is bold because she is a big girl) and before we knew it they had their beaks locked on each others necks. I think we're going to have trouble with these two. We know that we're going to have to go through some pecking while the pecking order is re-established but we decided that, for now, Bell has ideas above her station so we are going to seperate them for a week so that she can properly get her strength up then next weekend let them face each other in the garden again and hope they don't make as much noise about it this time (it was mainly Hythe who I am sure was squarking something like "fight! fight! fight!").