Sorting out their new Pecking Order

We have been supervising the hens outside today - a nice way to spend World Earth Day.
Our Scots Dumpy was really going for our new white Australorp hen Didee.  She jumped onto her back, pinning her down and tore out some feathers a couple of times.  This is just awful to see, and we didn't let her continue.  But all the books say that they do need to sort out their pecking order, so we didn't want to interfere too much and gave them plenty of space to escape one another.

So far our new Australorp Rosie has been hanging around with our other black Australorp Matilda a lot.  It's really hard to tell them apart too.  Good to see that Rosie is happy to give the Scots Dumpy a peck now and then - very pleased that there is someone else to keep Bizzy Lizzy from being such a bully!  If only whitey Didee had established herself higher as well, then life would be better for her.

Rosie and Matilda

Rosie's comb and wattle are becoming redder, so the only way to tell her apart from our other black hen is that her comb is slightly bigger than Matilda's.  Mind you, Matilda is used to us and comes up to say hello quickly, so that makes it easy to know it is her we're feeding.
Matilda was doing a lot of squawking this afternoon - I hope it doesn't annoy the neighbours in their gardens?  But she did eventually lay an egg, so that must have been what she was telling us about.

Sleepy time Surprise

We were out late tonight, and when we got home it was dark.  I checked on the hens and Matilda and Bizzy Lizzy were on their perch as usual and the new Rosie decided to sleep on the floor behind them.  But there was no Whitey Didee!!!!  I looked all around for her and found her high up in one of the spikiest thorn trees that we have!  Poor thing!  She wasn't even inside the enclosure - she'd flown over it and up into a tree for safety!  I picked her down from the tree and put her into the house.  I hope she gets used to the night time routine soon - maybe that naughty Bizzy Lizzy wouldn't let her into the house?  At least I'll be home tomorrow night to watch the shenanigans for myself.