Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Very Little Chicken Drama





There was little to no chicken drama at all today surprisingly. I opened the door to their coop and the original flock of hens and Rocky came running out as usual and scattered off in their little groups.

Rocky briefly tried calling the new hens out to him but they completely ignored him. In fact I think only one or two of the new hens even left the coop the entire day and only one was brave enough to actually put a foot outside of the barn. She quickly ran back in to the safety of the darkness.

Rocky quickly returned to his duties of escorting his special girls around and finding them food.




Once he had to protect his special red girls from a fearless feline attacker that he just knew wanted to dine on chicken.




There are three of these Rhode Island Red hens that think Rocky is just God's gift to chicken-kind and pretty much follow him everywhere. Occasionally they are joined by one of the Barred Rock hens and one of the Buff Orphingtons but quite often it is just Rocky and his three Red heads. Of course when important matters are afoot Rocky can in fact manage to call the entire flock in for a meeting but it takes him a little while to get them to all agree and Hennypenny absolutely refuses to get anywhere near Rocky anyway.

Meanwhile the addition of the new hens did hit egg production hard as the main egg nest appears to be inside the coop and the original hens didn't appreciate the new hens being in there with them. Either they just refused to lay or they went and found a new spot I haven't located yet because we only got four eggs today.

These new hens are acting just like the batch of five poultry barn hens I got originally. Most refuse to leave the coop and ate at the feeder all day. A couple of them were enticed by the sun streaming in the doorway and ventured as far as the big door entrance to lay in the sun but wouldn't do more than walk over to the edge and peer out at the big blue sky. Only about four of them even figured out they could squeeze through the cattle panel gates I built specifically for chicken movement. Of course four of them venturing out the first day is tons better than the original ones but then the original crew didn't have old hands around to show them the ropes either.

By the time evening hit at the absurdly early time of like 4:30 all the original hens were mostly already inside and in their roost positions. Rocky tried romancing a few of the new hens who ran from him screaming like he was a big scary monster which obviously hurt his feelings since he went to all the wingtip dipping trouble and everything to try and impress them.

I must say though when Rocky was around he didn't put up with any hen pecking shenanigans though. If an old hen started pecking at one of the new girls Rocky quickly broke it up until all the original hens were roosting properly. The new hens then began piling up in on the floor like they did last night although one did get up on the lower roost pole tonight.

Gonna take some time but I think these girls will figure out the ways of their new free range life eventually. With a bit of luck maybe next Spring one or more of these 30 hens will go broody for us.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!




10 comments:

  1. Our egg production seems to go hand in hand or should I say beak with how often I feed them meat. I am going to ask about how much protein is in the food when I get more tomorrow. The wife wanted to know how they could just shut off egg production when a strange event, such as adding more birds. I tried to be funny and suggest that maybe they go through a wedding ceremony which halts most activity. It wasn't funny.
    Anyway the standard thing that reduces egg production is light so winter is a slow time but I had problems back a couple months ago so something else is going on. Our white egg layers seem to be producing the most.

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    1. Sf - I am guessing here that our egg production may be because of the protein you mention from all the mice they snack on and the constant bugs that have had literally decades to live here unchecked. They entire place was over run with pill bugs and crickets and the mice were partying 24/7. No more though!!!!

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  2. You have really got into the whole chicken thing, from being not wanting to a flock of 30, and if they all go broody in the spring and raise young you could end up with a few hundred and we will call you chicken man :-)

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    1. Dawn - The major point to my not getting chickens before was I didn't want to build a coop. Too many other building projects too precedence. I have an agreement with my mother after we bought the place that she could keep the horses here for their life (or hers as the case maybe), All the hay would be used for the sheep and I would not use the barn except for the parts I already was using for equipment storage. Of course there were some things she promised that have since slipped by the wayside but overall it's a mutually beneficial deal and it makes her happy. It was actually her idea to turn one of the stalls into a coop and once she wanted it there was nothing stopping me but predators.

      Once I found out I could readily get poultry farm hens as they were retired that solved the second problem which was I didn't want the hassle of raising chicks.

      The third issue was the predators and once I got the land around the house and barn reclaimed and the brush cleared along with a dog that really watches the place at night, predators became much less of an issue too.

      What my mother loves more than anything is people coming by to get eggs. She keeps daily totals and checks the hens about every 2 to 3 hours all day long and has built up a clientele now too :)

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  3. PP this is like a soap opera!

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    1. Sol - Ya this morning the little Hamburg hen we have went all medieval on one of the Red sexlink hens. Rocky was out with his girls and my Mother had to break it up.

      Chickens do like their drama but free ranging them seems to help a lot.

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  4. I have heard the expression "like trying to herd cats", but I guess for Rocky, chickens aren't that much better.

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    1. Russ - He can eventually get the old hens together if he keeps trying. One tactic he uses is to start making the little "Here is food" cackle and the hens usually come running.

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  5. Sorry egg production went down but hopefully all will smooth out within a few days.

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    1. Lisa - It was back up today. We already have 12 eggs by 1:00 PM.

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