Ask them to hold your mail for 2 weeks and it fills a bin.
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Ribh's D'Coopage
- Thread starter Ribh
- Start date
Thank you.
Thanks for the hint!
The darlings surely are frizzles. How exciting!
It is wonderful that your broody crazy girls will finally have babies to care for.
Fascinating observations. These chickens never stop amazing me with how they organize themselves.As Shad pointed out a while back my lot have gone through some major changes recently. While we were still in a state of flux it was hard to gauge exactly what changes have or have not occurred. Things have settled & I have had time to observe the tribe.
The first & most obvious change is the tribe has quite discernibly split in two. There is Leonard & the big girls, then there are the bantams & the chicks. All the big girls are willing to mate with Leonard. None of the bantams are. He did try with Wrold but she gave him what for & he hasn't tried again.
The mamas take it in turns as to who goes out to forage & who stays in the coop with the chicks. The big girls will forage far & wide ~ as far & wide as fences & Leonard will allow them. The mamas stay close by the chicks even if they are separated by wire.
I am also seeing far more fighting. I have put this down to shifting dynamics in the pecking order due to the arrival of the chicks. Chavi, who was bottom, has gone up in status; China & India have gone down. Alpia has made it plain now she is a mama she deserves respect from all & sundry.
Leonard has fitted in beautifully & is happy to share rooster duties with me ~ particularly when the chicks are out. The big girls will take the opportunity to invade the coop & Leonard is torn between keeping an eye on his harem & the safety of the chicks & mamas. He relaxes once he sees I am standing guard over the babies.
The big girls seem to have accepted the presence of the babies but show very little interest in them. They are far more interested in the chick feed than the chicks themselves.Greedy gutses!
- Thread starter
- #38,836
Yes ~ & no. Tootsie has turned into an absolute harridan, screaming @ the mere sight of me & attacking me out of nowhere. Chavi is her usual sweet self. Alpia has become a little more aggressive, while Wrold has calmed down. To my surprise Wrold never objected to me checking on the babies. It is usually Chavi who is left to babysit if the others want to go out. Wrold is very much a "keep up there Tiger mum" sort of mother. Tootsie is a helicopeter mum, Chavi is a nuturer & Alpia falls somewhere between all these. Wrold is a good sitter. She hatched nearly all her eggs but she seems less keen on the mothering aspect of things. Tootsie & Chavi are absolutely wrapt @ being mums & are doing a good job.
Sounds like you're getting tribes.
Bantams and full size is an easy split and for those interested in creating a multi coop system with small free ranging tribes, this is the route to go. I've banged on about this very split often enough.
I found that the full sized roosters would attempt to mate with the bantam hens but the hens usuall fought or ran.
If these two tribes mix when out of their coops then there is a chance one of the bantams will crouch for a full sized rooster. If she sits or another hen does and hatches (with your lot someone being broody is likely) the eggs from the bantam full sized mix, you should with luck get a male who will be accepted by the bantams. The cross breeds who don't get accepted by the established tribes are likely to need their own coop.
Who is top hen in each group and who looks like being number two. Its the second in command that will set the tone of the group and she's likely to be the one to defend the tribe from non tribe hens.
It would be interesting to see what any cross breeds looked like given the, erm, unusual appearance of some of your chickens.
- Thread starter
- #38,838
Leonard is a Booted Bantam. His frizzling makes him seem larger than he actually is. He's quite tiny & has trouble mating Portia, who is a standard frizzled laced Wyandotte.
My lot are used to being a mixed lot. Even Leonard was accepted very quickly.
Amongst the big girls Ha'penny is top hen but she's such a nut job Portia does most of her duties as well as her own. She is also more accepting of everyone whereas amongst the bantams they are driving off China & India. I would have expected Wrold to take charge of this group [& she may actually be top hen] but it is Alpia doing all the enforcing with Tootsie backing her up.
I've been thinking I need another coop just for the bantams due to the size & number of predators. The currawong is a real pest. She is super territorial & absolutely feral. She has been taking the fake eggs from the outside nesting boxes & dropping them all over both my yard & the neighbour's. Plus she's a killer. I would have to go with a more traditional coop so need to work out how to circumnavigate the termite problem.
I have plenty of room to split the girls into separate tribes if that's how they want to do things.
More coops always helps. However, the amount of land the chickens can access needs to be considered.
What I would suggest is you consider making/have made a maternity/isolation coop at this stage. It will give you much more felexibilty in how you deal with the broodies. They can be reasonably cheap to make.
Another thing I would consider is getting a plastic pet carrier (plastic because it's weather proof) and leaving it out where the the chickens can get at it. The idea is that the carrier becomes part of their normal environment. I've used carriers as temp hospitals, spare broody housing, transportation and having them used to the carrier makes all of the above so much easier.
love your characterisations! I can match all these descriptions to broodies I've had over the years 
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