catch-up #4. B

Title: The He and She of it all.... Part Deux

so..... back to my coop story.

where were we....

oh yea.

three new pullets (7 week old~ assumed age).

so, we bring home three new pullets.

as we let them roam the range....

we notice one start to "relax" and rest it's feathers.

now (one of the) tall-tale (or tall-tail in this case) signs that you have a rooster is their back end feathers stick straight up.

look at this photo, and tell me what you see.

yes.

that is right.

one of the three newbies.... was ANOTHER rooster.

so the next day... into a box he went,

returned to the store....

bringing home my LAST pullet from this place.....

the place where "sexing" is not quite the art mastered.

NOW, (you would think the drama would have ended)

think again.....

with an older hen already in the coop, bringing in newbies is not an easy task.

they get "pecked to death" well not to death ( you hope)... but defiantly peck on.

Sweetie went from having two men pushing her around to three newbies in her space.

What a trooper.....

but she took a few days to warm up to sharing her space.

We had to segregate the coop troops for a few days....

and then just left them to figure it out after 3 days of separation.

it took about 6 days...

but Sweetie is back to her sweet self, and is living at peace with three new "sisters" (we hope they are sisters).

PS~ if any of these newbies are not hens but men.... I have already concluded I will swap for scratch. I am not doing this again... this year.

My first season in chicken keeping I have experienced pretty much every scenario you could experience... other than the raccoon (thanks Simpson for the heads up!).

We have also concluded that we are not naming the girls until they start "paying rent"....

its just easier that way.