In the past couple
of weeks we've been working on integrating the new chicks with the old
hens. It has been a bit of a bumpy ride
as Miss Matilda hasn't been as welcoming as we had hoped. In fact, she has been downright ornery about
it.
We put the two older
girls into the big crate in the pen area and allowed the newbies to run around
and get used to the new space. Once they
were acclimated and were able to find their way into the coop each night and
sleep we let Edith out of the crate and she did fine with them. she let them know who is boss and then all was
well.
The youngsters were
wary of the older hen, but after a few days everyone seemed to be pretty much
settled in. Then we let out Matilda and
she proved to be a bit of a bully. Little brat. So she is now in chicken jail until she can
get a better attitude.
She hates it and
makes quite a bit of ruckus. We have
moved her away from the coop and out of sight of the others which irritates her
to no end. And, when she gets really worked up she crows like a rooster. I'm sure my neighbors are thrilled. This is a new thing she started doing a
couple weeks ago. She is such a brat!!
Lol
ReplyDelete:)
Delete"Chicken jail" - haha! It's too cute, I love it. Matilda and Edith are perfect names (as well as Laverne).
ReplyDeleteD.
LOL. I like my old fashioned names, apparently. :)
DeleteThis was a timely post. My seventeen year old son (Autistic) asked the other day if Roosters were only male. After doing some research, we found that "rooster" in most cases are the leaders and without a male in your flock she is protecting them. I wonder if she thought the new girls were a treat. Doubt any of this helps you, but good luck.
ReplyDeleteShe was bullied by one of our hens that died (that hen ended up in chicken jail for a couple weeks too) so I figured that was likely the problem. The new ones really got her worked up. Poor thing.
DeleteI have never heard of a hen crowing like a rooster before. Hmmm...maybe there is a way to cash in on this newfound talent of her's? ;)
ReplyDeleteHa! Wouldn't that be nice? She seems to be settling down a bit now so she hasn't been crowing anymore.
Delete