We Don’t Know What to Do !!

Today, we went into a nearby town which was having its monthly big market. After we lost Speckled Hen, we made the decision to buy more. Not just for the eggs - though they are great - but to swell the numbers a bit. Plan was to increase the flock to 10, rather than 5. When we got there, three sellers were in place. The best one (in our opinion) had these lovely Marans. Very pretty and good egg layers, around 250-300 a year each. His suggestion for integration was to leave them in the boxes we used for transport, then release them at night in the coop. Mrs SoL went down to clean the coop and found the boxes with the chicken’s heads poking out (see Frenchtoast). So, she released them early. That seemed fine, and they did not appear to get bullied too much by the existing flock. Then I went down to close the door at night (foxes and fouines) to see this sight. They had found a few old tiles, as they had no idea where to go. Managed to pick them all up, one by one, and place them on the perches. We will see what happens tomorrow. PS - for those that are interested, the trail cam had no images of any predator which might be the cause of speckled hen’s demise. She may simply have fallen off her perch after a long and tiring squawk. Who knows.