The new kids, Tanky the tiny bantam hen

It is part way through Spring, hoping for sun to help my seedlings grow and mostly getting non stop rain that makes the weeds and grass grow.
Also hoping for an email soon from an Orpington breeder to say fertile eggs are available
although we do have our hands full right now...

At the end of July we went out after work to a local rest stop to collect a tiny hen we had fallen in love with, she was so fluffy you couldn't see her tiny legs, we named her Tank, which became Tanqueray. After chasing her until the sun went down, we were lucky enough to find her roosting low in a tree, she was bundled into a box and brought home for inspection and quarantine.
 

 

It's Important to quarantine any new bird you bring in, it gives you (I'd heard 4 weeks is recommended so that's what we went for) a period of time to observe and make sure your new friend has no bugs or illness they can pass on to your current flock.

A check up seemed to suggest that Tanky was pretty healthy, her eyes were bright, feathers nice and shiny, skin looked good, no lice, clean butt, only problem was she had leg mites, which feathered leg chickens are more susceptible to

 

 

(Photo is actually a few days later and looked a lot better) we trimmed her nails, cleaned her legs with a soft toothbrush and applied vaseline. We also applied baby oil with a few drops of tea tree oil. The Idea is to clean out bug poop and dirt, then smother the mites. The oil was applied once a week-ish for at about 4-5 weeks.

 

Time to pull out the broody cage! only as she is not broody the cage got wood shavings as bedding, she got a dust bathing area and a roost for sleeping and to spy out the window. In the evenings we would let her out to wander around and stretch her tiny legs, she soon learnt to yell at the top of her voice to let her out of her cage whenever she heard us coming.

Tanqueray is a mottled Pekin Bantam, a little sweetie with an adorable voice. None of our original hens squat (at least that I've seen) not for the rooster, or the drake or any of us, but Tanky did. Within about 2 weeks she would shuffle into a small box in her home and lay a tiny egg. She's a pretty consistent layer actually which makes me wonder if she is still quite young.

 

Tanky and the first egg she laid at her new home

 

 

Top - Duck egg,  Middle - Wyandotte egg, Bottom - Bantam egg



Every day she ate until her little crop bulged and gained a bit more confidence, she loved dust bathing in my frangipani pots and sitting on the window sill watching the outdoor birds, trilling if she saw a threat. plopping out on the carpet and exploring the living room. She learnt quickly to use the grandpa feeder and scarfs sunflower seeds like nobody's business.

Tanqueray post Frangipani dustbath

Eventually though, it was time to integrate her into the flock. It was something we had been worrying about, our ducks and Wyandottes are huge! and Sunny in particular is quite stroppy. Tanky was completely different than all of them, timid, tiny, fluffy legs, different comb... we had enough trouble re integrating Lacey when she had gotten over an illness.
We started by letting Tanky live in a netted off area of the coop, she had a nesting box and roosting area and when the big kids were let out for the day, we could extend it to give her more room. She had to get used to the idea of the coop being home, and all the birds could see each other but not touch.
The big kids were not impressed, coming in to gawk and complain.

After about a week of this we put up the temporary run outdoors, wire chicken netting stretched around heavy garden pots with stakes in them. Tanky was a much better flyer than we were used to so her run was taller than me and netting was stretched over the top. We bought a small chicken coop for her to shelter in while outdoors and I built a shelter for her feeder as we were having a crazy wet winter.
During the day she was carried out to get used to the yard and the big kids could get used to her being there too. She would dig around in the grass, sit in the garden pots spying on everyone and then climb up to the nesting area of her little coop and lay a little egg.
At night she was carried back to the coop to her netted off sleeping area.

Lacey Inspecting the new run from the outside

The new shelter to keep Tanky and her feeder dry

 Another week later and she was let loose into general population

Blue, Lacey and Lizzy mostly ignored her, but the ducks let her know to stay away from them and Sunny Chased her away from treats. We made sure to give Tanqueray her own pile of seeds and there were still 2 feeders out plus access to water in enough places that she could always get to it. She dustbathed, laid her daily tiny eggs in the coop and dug around the yard, hiding up on the water tank and trying to stay out of the big chickens way. Sometimes we find her roosting with the big kids, sometimes we have to pick her up out of the nest box and put her up with them.

In Early October, Tanqueray started spending more and more time in the nesting box

Uh oh, squeaky puffy tiny hen was going broody! We weren't worried about the fact that she stopped laying eggs, but she was leaving little feathers in her nest. Sometimes broodies will pluck tummy feathers so their skin touches their eggs and helps keep them warm.
Back to the broody cage for Tanky, we didn't want her to raise chicks or waste away trying. She was quite determined! it took just over a week for her to want to race around the yard again rather than immediately run back to a nest box.

Broody puff

This morning Tanqueray laid her first tiny egg since being broody, she headed off to the yard to have morning sunflower seeds with the big kids and do whatever it is they do all day. I'm glad it's all going well, the hens all seem to be relatively happy together.

But Tanky isn't our only new addition, we also have 9 ducklings.... 9!!!