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It is funny how, in a week, our lives have totally transformed to include these 6 funny things at the end of the garden!
I have been observing them closely and have found that the RIR Hetty not only has a sneeze! but has become a bit of a Grumpy Old Woman.
There are personalities within the group and the small Wyandotte can have a sharp tongue in her head but Hetty goes to bed early, is always the first to go to bed and goes straight to the roosting bars.
After her, when the others enter the shed they tend to stay on the floor or head to the nesting boxes. Every night I have been going in and moving them from there to the roosting bars. I decided there weren’t enough roosting bars for them (despite reading loads of stories about how cozy some chooks can get) so installed four more bars for them this evening in a slightly different place to allow them to spread out.
Sydney is *my* girl – she is always first to try things out, always more curious than others and she is the only one who will put up with Hetty giving off to her. When I start to put the others up on to the bars Sydney goes straight to Hetty and sits beside her, ducking under the others to get there and *battens down the hatches* and just sits there, riding out the pecks from Hetty – who gets bored with her quite quickly.
Apart from Sydney – no one else seems to want to roost with Hetty and I have started to doubt my wisdom. I thought I was *teaching* them to go to the roosting bars because that is what they were supposed to do but if they are happier away from Hetty and comfier on the floor – is it my place to try to persuade them otherwise?
I am thinking about making Hetty stay outside with me until everyone else has gone to bed to see if they sort it out that way. I have already had to put a second food dish out for them because she guards the other one!