Well the deed is done
![Grin ;D](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/grin.gif)
and I've got no work done since
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
Meet the girls:
![](http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a388/EllieDouglas/hens/IMG01047-20110725-1649.jpg)
Head chook is definitely the Sussex Star aka Dixie Chick
Troublemaker extraordinaire is the RIR aka Scarlett O'Hara, she's the one that escaped while I was transferring her (last of 4) from travelling cat basket to the coop and it was "interesting" trying to resume plan A..
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
Beautiful Bluebell aka Tallulah-Belle
![Wink ;)](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
is sweet but looks quite distinct with her lack of comb and wee fluffy white "eyebrows"
![Shocked :o](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
And last but not least "Roxy Black" who is not a Black Rock but if she'd been bred by someone else she would have been
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
They spent yesterday afternoon in the coop to get used, were allowed out for a few hours in the evening and eventually succumbed to a 2-person, one garden net
![Shocked :o](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
herding technique to go in for the night.. Not easy
![Shocked :o](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
and my pal Katie has left for home this morning so I'm on my own now too
![Shocked :o](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
So far I've worried so many times that I've poisoned them with leftover scraps or something growing in the pen, that they're ill (is it a cough or is it a crop shuffle noise?), then why Dixie chose to spend so much time lying down less than 2 hours after coming out in the morning, why she went back into the perches, whether the local buzzard fledges are going to come in, chasing DivaCat out of the pen when she got in, spent hours fixing balewrap hessian in strips across the top to add ariel camouflage (useful recycling of balewrap!) and also put a fair bit in and around the weeping cherry..
I had the same thought about the tree overhanging - have netted it up as far as poss and am prepared to chop the branch back if need be but am hoping I've done enough.. I think I'm probably the most high risk to their health and wellbeing at this point tho..
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
What kitchen scraps/people foods can chooks NOT have please? They seemed to enjoy leftover rice/pea/corn/bean salad but not spinach leaves or pea pods so far.. bread leftover from the weekend catering was fine but only one or two accepted pastry crumbs from Katie's quiche.. They have loads of vegetation to pick at and 2 spent ages chasing wee moths about last night, so I reckon they're probably happy but I can't get on with anything cos I keep peering out or just popping by for a wee check
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
19 weeks old by the way - so a bit to wait for an egg I reckon..