Adjustments in the Crazy Coop
Well, the baby chickies are too big for the brooder and were moved today. I thought if they were all together outside no one would notice being big or small. WRONG. The littles are being picked on by both the middle girls and the big girls. The littles are fine by themselves but once you introduce another larger chick into the mix, it is readily apparent that the pecking order has been established and they DO NOT want it interrupted. The middle girls seem to be particularly vicious and they were Havalah's brooder mates. Yet another reminder that animals are animals and not people.
So, out of compassion for these birds, my dad built a 'cage' for the littles inside the big coop. The bigger birds are a little put-out because they like their space. They don't NEED it all but they like it. The little ones are off cowering in a corner in their great big world and the bigger chickens are clucking and picking on them.
All this still, after a day out in the yard eating tasty bugs, slugs, grasses, and spiders. You would think the chickens would be too tired to pick on anyone else, but Nooooo. For some reason they feel these littles are a great intrusion. Little Havalah the Speckled Sussex is still half the size of the middle chickens, and little Naomi is a tad smaller than her.
I have yet to see if we will achieve chicken harmony, but hopefully, over the next few days we will. You would think the chickens would remember what it was like to be that small, but I guess they forget. After all, their brain is smaller than half an almond.
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