It's been a bit of a rollercoaster of feelings this weekend.

Yesterday one of my dear older chickens (Mouse) was killed by my neighbour's little dog (it must have jumped a few fences alongside where it lived, travelled up higher and come back down to where it could get to them). Not a nice way to go - but fortunately quickly. I've rarely even see this dog, so it's not like it's there constantly watching the chickens...

Now strangley, the rest of the chooks have settled down. The remaining older girl (Moon) has pretty much stopped picking on the two little ones (Magpie and Peach) and hangs around with them for company (or to keep them in line lol), sits next to them on the roost, lies down in the sun with them and generally acting quite friendly (but has given the little black one the odd peck if she's seemed too confident ;)). She was pining and calling for Mouse quite a bit yesterday and was subdued but seems to be coming right.

So since I could see the change in the way they were relating and I had Simon at home as backup today we decided to let them all out this morning. Until now, the little ones have been inside the coop since the escapades on the first day. I figured they were no longer going to be chased away by the older one and they knew their environment, knew me and Simon (the kids were staying at nannie and grampies for the night) and knew their coop was their haven. So out they came and they did great. They spooked a few times but not majorly and I was able to round them all up easily enough to put away inside when I was leaving the garden. No chance of letting them out to free range without me there now since the dog over the fence has the taste of chicken blood.

The situation is full of irony really (including the fact I was breaking the local bylaw by owning more than 3 bantams without having concrete floored housing for them) - but may just all work out ok.

Garden stuff...I bought a tamarillo tree and planted it, planted out some raspberry canes I was given yesterday, dug up/prepared one more vege bed, noticed heaps of tiny plums starting to grow, piled up soil against one self-seeded potato plant which is located in a really random place but at least free from frost, spotted some of my onion seedlings popping through the surface, tried to find a Jasmine plant to grow up our bamboo shade structure in the herb garden but they were out of stock, my first daffodil opened just in time for the first day of spring tomorrow and looks so pretty on my front path up to my door - I look forward to the other 5 plants flowering too.