My Chicken Existential Crisis... I mean journey

[JacinLarkwell]

property-mate really. SO wont let her live in the house.

Smart SO

 

[ackie]

anyway roos sold

 

[JacinLarkwell]

anyway roos sold

Yay

 

[ackie]

I want to post more about my flock dynamics but I'm too lazy to write up a post rn

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Any propertymate drama?

 

[ackie]

Any propertymate drama?

drama, no. just bits of her glass-half-empty outlook. she made us dinner last night though which was great

 

[ackie]

OH I HAVE GIRLS LAYING EGGS

 

[JacinLarkwell]

OH I HAVE GIRLS LAYING EGGS

Colors?

 

[ackie]

Colors?

off white haha

 

[ackie]

so my current set up is

main coop - 15ish pullets and 2 cockrells - I say ish because the number seems to vary every few nights whether girls want to sleep in trees or coop

group of trees - my alpha roo (6+ years old), one cock(rell), all my hens and any pullet that decides shes not interested in sleeping in the coop

side coop - five hens.

the older roo is obviously top dog and i doubt anyone would challenge him tbh since the age difference is so significant and the cockrells grew up with him. I suspect he gets first pick of hens and that seems to be fine with everyone, so he has a group of girls he wanders around with who sleep in the trees with him but I notice where they sleep changes every night. he had a spot that was his spot until a tree took out that branch, and I'm guessing he hasnt settled on a new spot yet, so he and the ladies sleep seemingly randomly arranged now. (I'm sure it's not actually random but chicken logic that I dont understand)

the cock(rell) who sleeps in the trees (speckles) had no ladies, another cock(rell) had 1 and another had 2, but I sold those two roos and I think the single lady now follows speckles around - maybe the other two do as well, I'm not sure. they travel separately from the alphas flock.

I suspect the girls who sometimes sleep in the trees and sometimes in the coop are probably not really attached to any one roo so they just sleep where the weather suggests. if any of my girls have babies, they tend to wander separately from the flocks as well.

the group that sleeps in the coop wanders around during the day together, also separate from the alphas flock. I suspect one cockrell (avary) is dominant over the other (snowflake) because avary will run the snowflake off when he tries to mate one of the ladies. but otherwise they seem to get along and even sleep near each other at night - theres lots of space.

when I say separate flocks: they all share the same space as far as I can tell / no one is prohibited from going any place, but when they move places as a group, these are the birds that move together.