I suppose I need to figure out how to start my own little story-line post since I seem to be accumulating quite a few cute tales (at least they are to me). I caught a small snake a few nights ago (I love snakes!) and brought it home for the kids to play with. My youngest son was in the back yard next morning playing with the snake - who, incidentally, surely thought he had died and gone to h*ll! - while my next-oldest son was feeding and paying with the hens. One hen noticed the snake, made a charge at it, grabbed it out of my son's fingers, and made off with it! Of course, she was making her crazy-excited-I've-got-the-treat-and-you-dont! noise, so three others took off after her. Behind a large stump they shared the poor treat Also, every one of my pullets (24 of them) still pile on top of each other in the coop at night. I have 9 boxes and about 18 linear feet of roosting boards at various heights and in different places throughout the coop. But ALL of them get in THREE boxes and share about 4 feet of board space! Is that normal? I watch them go in at night and they are very calm, no fussing or fighting over spaces, just a bit of shuffling about to get settled in. When I go back out an hour or so after dark to lock them in, they'll be making their little "sleepy" noises, and no one moves around when I close it. In the morning a few early-birds will be on the floor, but the others clamber out of the boxes when I open the door. All the boxes and all the boards are exactly alike, at least as far as I can tell. They were born around the 1st of April, I think. We got them April 7 and I believe I remember that they were supposed to be "week-old chicks." I *really* need to get busy and post some pics, they are really growing! And, of course, they're all beautiful!
Yes at that age mone slept on the floor and in the nest boxes but I did not put any nest material in the boxes. They do start to roost more as they get older and mine are now 19 weeks as of Monday, and all are squating for me. SO anyday we will have eggs! But they did stop the nest boxes as they got older (because I did not put nesting material in them) I think. But now I have chickens fooling me with the egg song but NO egg! AND they are so happy when I come running out to see if ther is an egg!
We just put in our nest boxes this week because our three 16 week olds are starting to get very red combs and doing some squatting. However, we have 5 barred rock pullets that finally decided two weeks ago that the floor was no place to be and the board that we put in the corner to hold the coop square (45 degree angle) is now the perfect roost (it is right under the window). They all pile on usually knocking the bottom pullet off a couple times before everyone gets settled. I have moved them numerous times to the actual roost that was built for them (that no one uses) and as soon as I close the door I can hear them flying down to the floor and back up to their spot.
