She is not toilet trained, but doesn’t cause too many problems in practice. Janet goes around and checks for any mess after Betty has been spotted wandering about. She is not allowed anywhere near the cat litter tray as she could eat it (for ‘grit’) or possibly scratch it up, and she has been shooed if she unwittingly gets near the litter tray, the idea being just to create a negative association with it.
She doesn’t jump up on my bed, but Janet has picked Betty up a few times and given her to me so I can stroke her while I’m in bed. Giving her a stroke and talking to her makes her talk back gently, with a low-pitched soft chirrup each time.
All of the new batch of hens are this exceptionally friendly relaxed breed, but Betty is on another level. Sometimes she follows Janet about and sometimes she is just content to explore on her own.
All the hens sleep in the tack room of the donkey stable now, so any predator will have to get through the half door, past two very dangerous donkeys, through a partition and then into the hens’ bedroom.