I feel your dilemma.Talking it Out
I am going to share an internal monolog which I have been having with myself. I am not sure that anyone can help me with this but this is what I was thinking as I sat in my chair under the Magnolia tree today with the big hens milling around my feet and the Phyllistines locked into the big run.
If we go back to why I added 2 more chickens to my tribe, requiring the construction of a new coop and a cross country run to meet a special lady in Allentown, PA, I wanted to achieve 2 main goals.
#1 is achieved. Phyllis is roosting in the new coop. Frankly it went pretty smoothly as well.
- I wanted to provide Phyllis with a better roosting experience. The abuse she was taking on the roost simply offended my sensibilities and did not feel fair to me at all. No chicken should have to endure that just to sleep.
- I wanted to try and create friends for Phyllis. Too many times I see Phyllis off on her own. The others tend to stay together and have the protection of their designated Sentinel. There is safety in numbers and ideally, Phyllis and the Phyllistines will wind up hanging out together. Birds of a feather and all.
So obviously I am kanoodling over point number 2.
I cannot force them to be friends. I would not if I could. So how can I create an environment where they might wish to start associating with each other?
I know some people may not be completely aware of how I manage my tribe. Let me describe how I try to let my ladies live their lives. The typical day at Fluffy Butt Acres starts with their release from the complex around 7 or 8 am. Weather permitting I will sit with them from the time I release them until 9:00 when I will start work. At that point they are responsible for themselves. There is one real predator here for which they must be alert and that is the red tailed hawk. From 9:00 am until 4/5:00 pm (post daylight savings change in the fall) they are on their own. I will come out about that time and share the remainder of the evening with them. Once they are back in the coop, I close up the complex and head back to work. In good weather I will also spend an hour or so with them at lunch time. I am very lucky that I work from home and can set my own hours.
This is a lot of time for them to be chickens. To enjoy the yard, the sun, eat what they want bathe and sleep and most of all, take care of themselves. I strive to let them run their lives. Of course it is within the confines of my fenced in yard. There are days when I will not be home and they need to stay within the complex. I try to leave things for enrichment on those days and they have plenty of room to avoid each other should they desire.
In general, this has worked well for them. I have lost one hen to a hawk and one to a weasel. The hawk was from before I understood there even were hawks and the weasel, well there was little I could do about that. So while there have been hawk attacks and sitings, in general they have been vigilant and survived them. This knowledge is shared with the newcomers over time. That is why there is so much less danger now than there was 7 years ago when none of the chickens knew there were killers in the sky.
So what is crazy old BY Bob actually kanoodling. Get to the point.
Normally at this point, any pullet I have would be out with the main tribe free ranging unsupervised. This enables them to integrate with everyone else with the whole yard as an available escape route. This time I am not doing that. I am keeping the littles separate to protect them from the hawks. They are locked in the big run all day until I let them out around 4 for 100% supervised free range time. At most they are getting 90 minutes outside of the complex with the bigs around. How is Phyllis supposed to form a bond with these newbies if she never sees them outside of a short period of time in the evening before bed?
As an example. By hanging around the tribe, new pullets usually know by now that there is good food up on the deck. The Phyllistines have never been to the deck without me carrying them. They have no idea.
As I watched them this morning I thought that I could lock Phyllis in with them. That would be so cruel to Phyllis to take the yard from her. Imagine her watching the others roam the yard while she was locked up with those little brats. Play with your younger sisters. You don't need to go to the dance with your clique.
I don't dare let the littles out. They have been actively hunted and simply are not aware enough to trust them alone.
It seems my only option is to wait until they are bigger and thus less of a hawk target. I'm not certain what else to do.
FWIW I would go with temporary hawk protection. I know it can’t be permanent and have the yard usable for you and Mrs BY Bob, but something that will allow more mingling during the day for the next few weeks.
Posts, streamers, more furniture, a fake owl, reflective tape, one of those windmill thingies, Shad’s wire idea. Throw it all at the problem. Folding garden chairs (go to a Habitat for Humanity Restore for random stuff like that).
None of it will work long term in any case and you can’t forever have your yard full of all that, but for a few weeks until the hawk learns other habits they will help.
The only other ideas to add in would be see if a neighborhood kid wants to earn pocket money by doing hawk watch for an hour after school, and see how much you can flex your work day to work after 5pm when it is now dark.
That’s all I got. Sorry!
