The Arrival of Hope and Love

22 November 2013

Our rescuer, Nix from Rescue Battery Hens - Cape Town collected us from the battery farm, intercepting our doomed fate of being culled because we were no longer considered to be in our prime for optimal commercial farm egg laying. There were 33 of us, all destined for homes with keen adopters. We were the first to be delivered to our new home that day. Our new owner, a first time hen caretaker greeted us on arrival. An avery in the backyard was to be our new coop... a safe haven for us until we adjust.

 

First day feet on solid ground

22 November 2013

We have spent the first year of our lives in a battery farm laying eggs in small confined cages. Today is the first day we are experiencing the breeze between our feathers, the soft ground under our feet, the sun on our backs, the sights and sounds of unconfined life. We are overwhelmed, confused and afraid... but tomorrow is another day.

Learning the art of husbandry

The first few hours were a bit of a clammer. I had boxes as a sort of additional 'shelter' over the laying 'nests'. This worked for a while, but as soon as the girls' natural instincts started kicking in, they had to jump on top of the flimsy boxes to roost nice and high. This obviously did not work so well and the first 24 hours was me panicking as hens were falling off boxes, cackling in panic and just simply trying to find their feet for the first time in the not-so-proper environment I had to offer.

I learned from my mistakes that its best to keep it simple and sturdy. The make-shift stepping stone I made which was essentially a wooden board on top of two flat garden tiles/stones, meant to assist the girls with getting up to their laying boxes, was just causing them to clammer while they tried to get steady footing as they explored their new surroundings.

Hope and Love seemed to quickly figure out the food dispenser we made out of pvc pipe which was tied to side of the coop, but they were really struggling to figure out how to drink from the make-shift water dispensers I had made using plastic bottles and bowls. It was a terribly clumsy affair and the water bowls were constantly being stepped on and in and being knocked over. I was replacing the water at least twice a day due to accidents in the first 48 hours. On Nikki's advice I tried putting a brick in the bowl and this worked because after nearly 48 hours of only seeing Love drink once and Hope not drink at all, I finally caught them in the act. This was such a relief, however, I knew I would have to make a better plan soon.

Thankfully, all along, while I was panicking like a real mamma hen, my calm and collected husband was there to put things into perspective.

This set-up was a complete failure! So we learn....

Natural instincts kick in

On day two, while the girls were clammering and fighting over their places on top of the flimsy boxes, my hubby finally stepped in after Love had fallen off the box into the crevice behind the laying nests, to help her find her way out by lifting the one box in front of her (with Hope still precariously balancing on top of it). After the drama had subsided, Greg gave Love a good 'petting' while Love protested with a loud squawk... LOL, hubby just wanted to give her some love, but I had to remind him that the girls are not cats!

From day 2, I also noticed that the girls started becoming more vocal, especially in the afternoons. I must confess, it made me a bit nervous, because the last thing we needed was for the neighbours to start complaining.  Nikki did warn me that the girls might fight with each other initially, while they establish the 'pecking' order, i.e who is the top bird in the coop.  I was also told how the girls do tend to be vocal when they are about to lay.

Sure enough, from day 3, when the girls started settling in, I noticed that they were starting to fight.  Luckily it was not major, but you could see they are busy establishing the ranking.  Today, day 7, this still seems to be going on.  Hope seems to be hogging the food bowl, while Love protests and has to try and sneak in when Hope is otherwise preoccupied.

Thankfully the hens seem to be quiet at night.  One windy night, I peaked in with a flashlight to check on them and I could see their little bodies cuddled up together in the corner of the coop in the crevice behind the nesting box (seems they prefer that, over what I had tried to put together for them! LOL!). My heart MELTED and, I know I shouldn't worry and that they are perfectly fine, but I felt so worried that they would be too cold.

From day one, the girls were laying at least one egg a day, sometimes two.  I don't know who is doing the laying, but all I can say is that by the end of day 7, we had 12 eggs.  We threw away the first few and on day 8 had our first egg breakfast using eggs from our hens.  It was awesome to know where the eggs were coming from and that the girls were now being well looked after and given the opportunity to experience life as they were naturally designed to do.

Our cat "M-ie" investigating the new members of our family

The first taste of Life

Day eight was a Saturday and the first day that we opened the coop door to let them come out. We had cordoned off a section of  the garden to allow them to free range under our supervision. That day, the girls were not brave enough to step out so we left it and closed the coop. The following day in the late afternoon we tried again and this time it was a different story. We filmed the girls while they took their first cautious steps outside, first sticking their necks out and scanning the environment then taking one step at a time, lifting one leg up, holding it up while looking around then slowly dropping that leg to take the next step and then lifting the other, holding it up, while having another good look around. In a matter of seconds, they started pecking at things on the ground, inspecting every little speck with their incredibly good eyesight. Love took a liking to the bush next to the coop, actually pecking at its leaves at her eye level. It was not long before they had covered nearly the entire area in which we allowed them to roam. They were in their element, scratching around with their feet, ruffling up their feathers and stretching their wings, digging in corners as if they were frantically digging for gold. It was such a sight to behold.

Hope and Love come out of their shells

On Monday morning (17 days after their arrival) we decided to let them roam from about lunch time.  We are lucky enough to work from home and even luckier enough to have a good view of the roaming territory from our desks.  What a pleasure; how peaceful to sit and watch the girls quietly exploring and enjoying themselves. It was not long before they starting coming 'out of their shells' (excuse the pun!), and we started noticing the differences between the two and how each had her own unique personality.

The tables were turned and it seemed that Love was now the more dominant of the two, although I am not really sure. They are getting on famously and the ranking almost seems equal although it seems Love is hogging the food bowl more. I am still struggling with the water dispenser.  We now bought two little hanging 'bowls' to attach to the side of the coop and although I would catch Love in the act of drinking I never saw Hope drinking, and the times that I would see Love drink were very rare.  I decided to continue monitoring it carefully.

Over the week, new behaviour started emerging.  From time to time, you would see the girls sprinting from spot to spot in the garden sometimes also chasing each other.  It was hilarious to watch and proved just how much they were enjoying their new found freedom.

On Thursday the weather changed from hot and muggy to cool with light rain one afternoon.  By that
time we had already allowed the girls the full day roaming because it was clear that was what they wished to do and they were still out when the rain started.  Initially I worried because they were going to get wet and cold.  I let it be and just kept an eye on them.  They both snuggled close to the wall/window of the house and started digging their bodies into the soft (still dry) soil.  It looked like they were in heaven having refreshing "baths", ruffling their feathers and half rolling in the dirt, although ironically they actually looked filthy, especially white Love who was now bearing resemblance to brown Hope!

It was also on that afternoon that I think they discovered the rich treasure of countless snails that crept around our garden.  (I think that the snails were a God send, not only for the juicy meals they were making for the hens, but also because of their moisture content, possibly giving the girls the extra water intake they needed).

Whenever the girls would roam near our home office windows in close enough range to hear our voices, they would curiously look through the window and even jump on the window sill to get a closer look.  When I talked on the phone or loud enough, they would then also start cackling to give their two cents worth.

Bed time woes

After a nice long day of roaming, the time would come for the girls to return to the safe shelter of the coop until the next morning.  This is where I would come in to the picture to see if could coax them back into the coop without too much drama.  Well, it turned not to be so easy and to this day I still battle to get them in.  Hope especially resists going back in, while Love is not much better.  Often I end up having to pick them up and put them down inside the coop. I can see that they really don't enjoy this and I try to be as quick as possible to avoid putting them under too much stress. Once they are in, I close the front door cover and can, from time to time hear a big racket (sounds like they are flying into the walls or fighting!) while they try and settle into the thought of settling down for the night.  Luckily this is over within the first half hour or hour after they are put in. I resist going to peak in to see what on earth is going on because when I once did, it just caused more of a disruption.

Once Hope settled in, she wanted to sleep in the lavender bush at night!

Hope learns to fly

One day, while I was outside enjoying observing the two in action, I noticed a flutter of feathers out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look and found that Hope had flown about two feet off the ground into one of our lavender bushes.  She sat their in the middle of the bush finding her footing and eventually settling down.  It was late afternoon and I could tell that this was Hope's way of saying "this is where I want to roost for the night."  It was not a happy ending when I had to carefully lift her out of her new found roost and put her into the coop for the night. 

This behaviour was repeated everyday late in the afternoon/early evening, just before it was "bed time".  I would watch Hope and actually see her up and around at the bushes that surrounded her trying to figure out where and how she was going to jump up into one of them.  She would actually, like an athlete, prepare to launch herself in the direction of a bush, but would most of the time abort the mission not feeling confident enough.  I noticed this behaviour once I have put her in the coop as well, as if she was going to try and fly out of the coop, even though it was impossible.  I felt bad for her, but had to put my foot down because it would not be safe for her to sleep outside.

I'll never forget just kneeling next to her while she was relaxing in the bush, her eyes lazily falling shut.  It was so nice to see her so content.

The plan is to sort the coop out soon so that we have proper nesting boxes and a proper roosting bar so that the girls are more comfortable with being in the coop at night (I think the current make-shift tyre nesting boxes are too low off the ground for them and I also did not have a roosting bar set up yet because I didn't think they would be ready so quickly!).

End of week Two

By the end of the 2nd week, we were still harvesting one and, on occasion, two eggs per day.  I still didn't know which of the two are laying or if they both are, but since we first let them roam I did notice a slight drop in egg production.  I think this was because they were roaming instead of sitting infront of the food bowl the entire day, gorging themselves, because they had nothing else to do.  This is obviously what they did in the battery farm because they would have had nothing else to do in their tiny cages except for eat.  I was obviously glad and hoped that they would slow down with the egg production because I felt they must have needed a rest. 

By this time I was also mixing their old 'laying' feed, which is what they were used to, with more of a grain type diet.  The plan was to slowly reduce the ratio of the old 'laying' feed and eventually replacing their diet with an all grain diet supplemented by the juicy and nutritious treats they find in the garden and which I might give them from time to time.