They're here!

As you can see, I am one happy (and admittedly, also slightly over-excited) lady!

Who is inspecting who?

I was fortunately lent this puppy cage by a kind friend, which turned out to be a godsend as all 6 could easily fit in together, and they were probably happier this way (as they were used to being in the same flock already) than being squashed up 3 to a cat carrier.

So, some introductions are in order...

Butterscotch, she's a hybrid Rhode Island Red, chosen and named by E as her 'own chicken'

This is Bluey, so named as she's a Fenton Blue (a Cream Legbar cross who will hopefully lay blue/green eggs) but we all agreed the play on words in her name also fitted with the classic Aussie nickname used for a redhead! (Although she is more 'Strawberry Blonde' I think.)  She is also L's choice for his own special hen.

This one is a Rhode Rock, which apparently lay large brown eggs which are often double yolkers.  Interestingly, although she is the second smallest of our 6, she has already shown herself a contender with Butterscotch the RIR for the dominant hen crown.  We have named her Queenie as she has a suitably imperious look in her eye and wears all black like Queen Victoria.

This is Margot, a suitably French inspired name for a Speckedly (based on the traditional French Maran hen) and she should lay dark brown speckled eggs.

This was the best shot I could get of Bunty the Blue Belle (a Maran/Rhode Island Red cross) - she is quite an effective wriggler!  Margot obviously couldn't resist offering her best side to the camera again, muscling in on Bunty's big moment.... 

And last, but not least:

Meet Delia, our White Leghorn.  She is the weeniest, lightest and skinniest of all 6, and definitely the shyest - she ran me a right old dance at putting to bed time!  As she lays pure white eggs we have called her Delia, in honour of that national treasure, who caused the white egg craze when she launched her book How to Cook...

Much to the children's disgust, we popped them all into the coop's attached wee run for the rest of the day today, and did not let them out into the garden as everything I've read tells me that they need to sleep in the coop for one night to realise it's their home, and as it turned out I had enough trouble getting the more timid 3 into the house at bedtime as they wouldn't come out from the under-house bit of the run in order for me to grab them! I dread to think what would have happened if I had to chase them round the orchard...

I can't imagine that we will use the little run much - it is way too small, barely enough run space for 1 chicken never mind the 12 that the manufacturer's claim this coop will house!  I have measured the interior square footage and perch space and I don't think it would be comfortable for more than 6, but that is just the house itself, of course we intend to run the chickens in the orchard on a paddock system, divided within the electric fenced area.

Which is our next problem....

It's not working.  We have struggled for two days to get it to work.  Yesterday evening we gave up assuming it was the long grass draining the charge too much.  But today we strimmed a foot either side of the net, and still no charge from the net.  You can touch it with your hands no problem.  We've moved the earth spike.  It seems fine.  We wondered if it was a problem with the lead out cable, so tested the energiser with just a short section of cable, and it only reads 1 on the fence tester included in the kit, which should apparently read 5-8... Could it be a faulty energiser?  It's so frustrating, that with all my careful planning and organisation, we are here, our first night of chicken keeping and all that stands between my ladies and Mr Fox is the (scarily feeble looking) wooden walls of the chicken house.

I will phone the company who supplied it, on Monday morning.  But I just keep worrying - have we missed something obvious?  Is this down to our own stupidity?

Please don't let Mr Fox visit tonight and find the fence not working!

I just feel I have failed, and yet I'm so happy that I'm finally here - a chicken keeper at last, I've waited so many years for this.  I wouldn't consider hens in the old garden as the lawn just wasn't big enough to share with the children and rotate to recover.  I've waited and waited and planned and pondered, now here I am and I don't want anything to spoil it x

Feeding them some treat corn to try to bribe them into bed