Well, we decided that with our little chick doing so well, we’d put her out with the others. It’s imperative to get then back with the flock asap if they are to be accepted. She’s had the secret name of Chickatita (rhymes with the Abba song, Chiquitita, not ‘chicken tikka’), however when her future looked bleak we stopped calling her that. There is a big risk introducing her now, as her mum won’t know her and the other chicks will have bonded. ‘Pecking’ order is quite brutal and they establish their order by pecking. However, Manuel is starting work tomorrow, and will be taking the roof off the chicken barn, so we decided we’d have to move our two families into the barn by the lemon tree.
It made a lot of sense to move Chickatita at the same time. So what we did was pop her in first. Move the chicks in second and the hens in last. Of course, it sounds very simple, but entailed Ian getting attacked by two very cross broody hens. And, boy, could they fight! Ian spent quite a lot of time running in circles while he was being chased.
We managed to get all the chicks first and popped them in with Chickatita. However when they all ran to the back of the barn, Chickatita ran to us! When we bought the two hens in the same thing happened – however the broody hens at this point started herding Chickatita back to the others while getting ready to fight us if we tried to grab their chicks again.
We had a real Disney moment, when Chickatita’s natural mother, (aka T’other, as we have Spot and ‘the other’) went to gather Chickatita back and off the little chick followed, stopping to look back at us before she snuggled down with mum. As Ian and I blubbed our way out of the barn, we decided that things were looking good and that she was bonding with her real mum.
Until we went in an hour later.
We then found Chickatita had left her mum and had gone to join Spot’s brood. Dislodging one of Spot’s chicks who had gone to join T’other one.
It does appear, however, which ever mum she ends up with that she’s been accepted.