Oddly, the effect of putting the brutalized hen in a cat carrier in the former chicken house has been that the other two {Becky & Barbie} have insisted on being in the shed as well. Are they wondering if they belong there? Are they taking precautionary measures against ending up with bloody beaks and tails? During the day, they stay in another part of the yard from Buck and the bridge club. Should night be any different?
A local grocery store gave me a lot of corn that they could no longer sell, and the chickens love it. I break the cobs in half and toss them over the side of the deck, and wait for the clatter of little toes over the rocks and through the leaves. If I throw any to the B's, the originals prance around threateningly until I feel as though I'm in the front row of something by Sondheim & Bernstein. Or Shakespeare.
Well, they are made of sterner stuff than I, so today I moved my garden tools and work table back out of the shed, as well as the nice Eastlake chair I'm hoping to re-upholster eventually. It has been a roosting destination for the last couple of nights and is somewhat the worse for it.
I put in some nesting boxes.....- ok, I put in some cat boxes with tops, and put shavings in them to make them more enticing, and fastened a nice fat branch about 4' up in the corner. When I went to check on them, I found them there.
"The hell with the warm boxes" they said
"Give us a nice branch we can crowd together on" they said.
So now I know there is no escape from the unwelcome task of making a window in the back of the shed, repairing the doors and installing a heat lamp. I thought buying a well planned chicken coop would spare me, but I'm still learning about chickens, and they are still patiently teaching me what works for them.
In their obviously intricate social world there are some people with whom one simply does not associate. There are no suck-ups or flatterers in my flock. They are honest chickens. They don't like something, they say so. Their enthusiasm is as undiluted. They are passionate and unapologetic. There is one flock that belongs and there are the interlopers. I can put the B's in the main coop at night, but there is a wave of protest on both sides. Now that they each have a place to sleep that feels safe and comforting, I'm hoping they'll learn to at least share a neighbourhood. Separate - but equal.
A local grocery store gave me a lot of corn that they could no longer sell, and the chickens love it. I break the cobs in half and toss them over the side of the deck, and wait for the clatter of little toes over the rocks and through the leaves. If I throw any to the B's, the originals prance around threateningly until I feel as though I'm in the front row of something by Sondheim & Bernstein. Or Shakespeare.
Well, they are made of sterner stuff than I, so today I moved my garden tools and work table back out of the shed, as well as the nice Eastlake chair I'm hoping to re-upholster eventually. It has been a roosting destination for the last couple of nights and is somewhat the worse for it.
I put in some nesting boxes.....- ok, I put in some cat boxes with tops, and put shavings in them to make them more enticing, and fastened a nice fat branch about 4' up in the corner. When I went to check on them, I found them there.
"The hell with the warm boxes" they said
"Give us a nice branch we can crowd together on" they said.
So now I know there is no escape from the unwelcome task of making a window in the back of the shed, repairing the doors and installing a heat lamp. I thought buying a well planned chicken coop would spare me, but I'm still learning about chickens, and they are still patiently teaching me what works for them.
In their obviously intricate social world there are some people with whom one simply does not associate. There are no suck-ups or flatterers in my flock. They are honest chickens. They don't like something, they say so. Their enthusiasm is as undiluted. They are passionate and unapologetic. There is one flock that belongs and there are the interlopers. I can put the B's in the main coop at night, but there is a wave of protest on both sides. Now that they each have a place to sleep that feels safe and comforting, I'm hoping they'll learn to at least share a neighbourhood. Separate - but equal.
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Glad to hear from you, but criticisms will be ignored. It's the beauty of the web. I will answer all friendly remarks. Buck handles the rest.