Granny23
Songster
Interesting. My 2 Anconas are talkative but they come to me to be picked up when I call them. We hand raised them in the house from a week old. They do like to fly up onto my back to climb up to my shoulder if I lean over too long.
I bought 2 RIR's at the same time and one, for some reason, hasn't been accepted well in the roosting area. I started going out to help her get settled because I would find her all alone outside after it's dark and all the other hens are roosting.
So now every night when I know all 7 of the girls are roosting I look outside and she is always waiting for me to put her to bed.
At first I left her alone figuring she would eventually go in but she never went inside to roost. After being chased off a few times she stopped trying.
She just found somewhere to sleep outside. I've heard that the older hens are more accepting after any new flock members start laying, and she has, weeks ago, but 2 older hens in particular don't want her up there. So I take her in, find a spot, get someone to scoot over a little and put her up. Then I quietly shoosh everyone for a minute or two and when the trouble makers finally stop their bitching and go down to sleep I leave. After that it's all good.
My coop is 4x8 ft and I have two 3.5" - 4" wide boards at one end of the coop with a ladder for the hens to go up. It's never been a problem but I only had 4 hens. Now I have 8.
I find that 3 or 4 of the hens like to sleep/snuggle right next to each other...and some sleep alone. Is that enough room for them?
The one picture shows 7 hens and the other shows Cookie by herself but you can see the roosting bars, one in front and another in back and they are 4 feet long.
