News From The Coop
Welcome back to another Friday edition of News From The Coop, where the chickens continue proving that life would be significantly quieter and more organised without them.
This week was a big one in the orchard because we officially welcomed two new girls to the flock. Meet Cher and Marilyn. Cher is our beautiful black Easter Egger and Marilyn is a gorgeous grey Easter Egger. Between the two of them, they already look like they belong on the cover of some glamorous poultry magazine.
Now, introducing new chickens is never quite as simple as opening the gate and saying, “Ladies, please welcome your new sisters.” A while ago, when we introduced Suzanne, our Brown Lohmann, to the flock, the poor girl took a while to find her feet. The pecking order is a very real thing, and the established girls made it quite clear that membership to this exclusive club would not be granted immediately.
This time around we decided to introduce two girls together, and honestly, I would highly recommend it. From day one, Cher and Marilyn had each other. Wherever one went, the other followed. If one found a tasty bug, the other appeared seconds later. If one got chased away from a snack, the other came running in solidarity. They’ve become instant best friends. I also think introducing two at a time helped prevent the rest of the flock from focusing all their attention on a single newcomer. There was less drama, fewer hurt feelings and far less chicken politics than we expected.
That said, the coop still wasn’t entirely drama-free. For five nights, Cher and Marilyn absolutely refused to use the roosting bars. Every evening they would settle themselves into increasingly creative sleeping positions while I stood there explaining that chickens are supposed to sleep on the bars. Apparently nobody informed them. So every night I picked them up and placed them where they were meant to be. They would look at me as if I was personally ruining their lives.
Finally, on night six, something clicked. The girls marched into the coop, hopped onto the roosting bars and settled down like they had been doing it for years. Parenting teenagers and chickens might actually be the same thing.
At 13 weeks old, we still have a little wait before eggs arrive. Easter Eggers usually start laying somewhere around 21 weeks, although if my other girls are anything to go by, they’ll make us wait just long enough for us to wonder whether they’re ever planning on contributing to the household.
Speaking of contributing…
This week also included the annual event known as The Feather Clipping Ceremony. Now, before anyone panics, clipping a few flight feathers doesn’t hurt the chickens. It simply prevents certain members of the flock from deciding that fences are merely helpful suggestions. The operation started calmly enough. Then somebody realised what was happening. Within seconds the orchard looked like a crime scene investigation mixed with a rugby scrum. Chickens were running in every direction, children were laughing, dogs were offering completely unhelpful assistance and Madonna was shouting instructions from a safe distance while contributing absolutely nothing.
As usual.
This week we’re also giving the girls a little garlic and chilli. Many chicken keepers use crushed garlic and chilli flakes as a natural addition to their flock’s diet. Garlic is often used to support general health and can help during the colder months, while chilli contains capsaicin, which chickens cannot actually taste the way we do. They can happily eat chilli without experiencing the burning sensation that sends humans running for milk. We’ll mix a small amount into their feed and keep an eye on them as always. Of course, knowing our girls, they will probably inspect it, hold a committee meeting beneath the guava tree, reject the proposal and demand mealworms instead.
Until next week, Friends.
If you need us, we’ll be in the orchard negotiating with a flock of tiny feathered dinosaurs who somehow eat for free, pay no rent and still run the entire property.
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