June 30, 2008

Bad To The Bone...The Chicken Bone.

Well here you are. The 25 new ready to lay hens. They are doing well...now. My older chickens have been very...very mean to them and have done NOTHING but BULLY and PICK ON them.
In fact, they have been SO mean, I have separated them and banned the old gals AND Heff the Rooster to the outside pen for a few weeks.

Seriously...it was like watching a schoolyard fight...only MEAN. Not scratching or pecking mean.
Worse....
As in the old gals AND Heff were not allowing the new hens IN the coop, and not allowing them to eat or drink. Seriously....it was MEAN.


They are doing better. They are getting used to the roosts and the nests, and used to Heff's annoying crowing OUTSIDE the coop. They are still pretty scared of me though, as you can see them all bunched up here.

Once they get used to how things work IN the coop, I'll let them into the outside pen and eventually the bigger yard. Of course that also depends on the other meanies.

Here is a close up. They are actually pretty cute. The black feathers on the ground are from 2 weeks ago when something came in and ummm....took a chicken.
While we are at it, Here are the nests. So far these gals like laying on the floor so I put four on the ground until they get used to it. They are 'ready to lay hens' which means they are only 14 or so weeks old. Soon I should have about 2 dozen a day.
Here is the coop from the outside. Normally the chickens can go from the inside of the coop to the outside pen freely, and then when I open the door to the pen they can free range.

For now however, The old gals are confined the the outside pen. They have to sleep in the tiny blue coop for now. During the day I let them out of the pen and into the yard. If you look closely you will see the hen laying in the dirt.

This is the inside of the pen. They nest and sleep in the blue door. The shoot to the right is the tunnel to the coop. No access now!!! suckers!!

I don't think they mind too much. I mean really. In the morning they are allowed to free range under the shade of the cedar trees.

Don't let them fool you though. At every opportunity Heff tries to get back into the coop to 'show the new girls who is boss'. Actually...see the black and white hen? She is about a third the size of the new brown hens but is the WORST ONE!! If she didn't lay me cute little brown eggs I don't know...I just don't know..... ;)

There you go. The update

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome! The new girls are very pretty!

Kate said...

They're beautiful.

Kate