Picking up the chickens
 
                                             

Suey and I had decided to go to the Devon Traditional Breed Centre, not only beause they had the breeds and colours that we wanted but also because they had so many good write-ups on the internet. We got there at around 2pm and as we drove up we saw all these beautifully presented pens with each breed in their pens. We parked up and rushed down to have a walk around. We saw all sorts of chickens from Buff Orpingtons to Light Sussex to Silkies.

We had a wander around and saw the biggest cockerel I had ever seen. It was half the size of a man! Each of the runs was surrounded by a fence around 3 feet in height. There were loads of bantams and none of them were being flighty and trying to escape. The Wyandotte bantams were also not what I had expected "bantams" to be. They seemed like normal sized hens. We saw silver pencilled Wyandottes and barred Wyandottes but no silver laced, blue laced or gold laced.
                                             
 
                                             
We enquired about buying some and they had the selling stock in a big chicken house. The owner, Nick, arrived and brought with him what looked like a butterfly net. We told him what we wanted and he scooped them up expertly with the net and then put two bantams in a carrier box. We had to have an older silver laced Wyandotte because there were no 9-week old hens left. As I paid for the hens a girl came up to me and asked if this was the first time I had bought hens and I said “Yes”. She went on to say that you think that they are going to be fun but you don't have a clue how much fun they are and how much better they are than you imagine. They had bought 6 Buff Orpington bantams and they were having such a great time with them that they seemed to be coming back for more! The whole experience at the centre had been fabulous, especially with the weather being so sunny and beautiful.
                                             
We left the centre in our little Clio and drove the 2 hour journey back to Cardiff. We were concerned that the little chickens would be scared and noisy but they seemed fine as we drove them back. They were quiet and had settled in their boxes. We got them out to the back of our house and we put them into the run. We should have put them in the house, really, and left them there for a day before letting them out so that they knew that was where they go to sleep. However, we thought that the journey had been long enough so we let them out and immediately the pecking order was quite recognisable.  
                                             
 
                                             
1. Silver Laced - “Buck Bucky”   2. Gold Laced - “Shakira”
                                             
 
                                             
3. Blue Laced - “Cocoa”   4. Silver Pencilled - “Pom Pom”
                                             

The hens looked beautiful and they were so much fun. They waddled around and they all have their own little personalities. Suey had put a mirror in the run and Shakira absolutely loved her reflection. She just kept going back to it time and time again and then moving her head from side to side as such a speed that I thought her head would fly off. They were foraging in the ground and they figured out where the food was very quickly.

The only thing they didn't figure out was going to bed. Suey had made the plank with little steps on it so that they could climb from their run through to their pop hole. Only Buck Bucky had figured it all out. The others managed to climb up halfway then just jumped off. Suey ended up going in there and grabbing them all to put them in the house at 9pm. I think we were more exhausted than the hens. We also couldn't help but worry whether they were going to be okay in the house. Was there enough ventilation? Will they survive the night? Should we put water and food in with them? Are they going to bully each other all night? All these questions go round your head. I went out there an hour later and there was absolute silence in the house. They must all have fallen asleep soundly... or they had all passed away (aaaghhh).
                                             
  They all lived, thank goodness, and I had enquired as to whether the hens were perch trained. Nick at the DTB Centre had told me that they weren't and that I would probably have to put them up on the perch myself to show them how it worked. Anyway, we decided to put the perch in on the second day of having them and they must have instinctively known how to use it. Pom Pom and Cocoa were the wrong way round, however, but at least Buck Bucky and Shakira had figured it out. If they all face the right way then all their poop should land on the droppings board. We also found it quite amusing that of the 90cm or so of perch space, they managed to fit themselves on just 40cm of it between them.