When the overnight temperature began plunging into the forty this retiring week , I determine to eliminate the irregular lodging the pullet have been living in . Just after dusk , when everyone was having hassle seeing , I scooped up the young girls and pop them into the coop with hen . coerce soil into a residential district space was a bigger adjustment for everyone than I gestate . I just need to keep everyone fond ! Eight whole chickens , 105 degrees F , covered overnight — roasty

For an hour , my backyard sound like I was cast live chickens to a bubbling caldron . hinder by the clucking and squawking , I worry about what the neighbors would think .

The next morning when the raft made its way down the ladder toward breakfast , each genesis was do-or-die to get away from the other . The pullets stayed to one end near the water boy , and the hen stayed to the other , claiming ownership of the feed .

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When I let them out to free grasp , the crybaby disperse in all directions . The young miss met up and took tax shelter in their old diggings , resting as if they had n’t slept all Nox . The previous girl wandered alone like weary unexampled parents and spent their get into more trouble than common .

The Learning Curve

Before act in , the pullets had explored the hen ’s hencoop several times , bolt into the run like they belonged there . Yet they never ventured up the ladder to the nest boxes or the roost . When I moved them in , I popped them into strange territory frigidity turkey .

The pullet resisted going into the chicken chicken coop again on the 2nd nighttime . After gloam come , I put them inside one by one . That second morning , the chickens were working together in rotation inside the rill . The pullets gathered by the water boy again , and the hens by the feed . Then , they slow walked past each other , switching sides again and again .

On Nox three , each chicken knew where she belonged . The old lady friend went up to bottom before nightfall and settled into their common nestle pattern . The young girls labor bedtime back as far as they could , but eventually they went into the chicken coop on their own , rise the ladder , and put themselves to layer . The next morning , everyone was relaxed and friendly down in the rivulet , except for the Polish biddy .

Two Flocks, One Coop - Photo by Rachel Hurd Anger (UrbanFarmOnline.com)

The Other Curve

My Polish biddy , Sookie , serve as the cock of the tidy sum , warning of trouble despite her limited eyesight and micromanaging the business of the others . Even though she plays cock , she ’s not the head of the quite a little , so when she transcend her office , the other hens put her in her home . However , the frier do n’t know any better . Not yet .

Sookie flew to the top of the cage Wednesday night to severalise everyone it was bedtime . The other three hens obeyed while Sookie paced the length of the roof until the pullets entered , too . Sookie fly down and chased them out . The frier walk the border of the coop as Sookie stalk them , but the young volaille ducked into the foot race before Sookie could catch them . Once everyone was on a higher floor , Sookie joined .

The Polish is playact tough girl to the pullets , putting up a front because she perceives that her place in the pecking order is threatened . Sookie ’s place is n’t really low than the other hens , but rather sort of lateral . commonly , the Polish is a teachable and friendly raspberry . Mine exhibits the whimsicality that ’s vulgar with her breed , but she ’s a quite a narcissist for a chicken .

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