Entreparadis
Songster
- Aug 8, 2019
- 72
- 96
- 106
Well, President Snow has been living alone with the chickens in the coop and run for over a year now, he is a white peacock. He lives with 4 speckled sussex, 4 plymouth barred rocks, two black australorps, and one old RIR, all hens. My first problem with this batch of laying hens we raised, is that they started laying in the peacocks favorite spot in the corner of the coop on top of the nesting boxes where he eats sleeps and craps like a hermit all winter. He rarely moves during the winters and never comes outside, so I did not expect the chickens first eggs to be laid under him. He always pecks the chickens when they get too close, so I was surprised to walk in one day, and notice the peacock standing over a completely full nest of eggs. I moved him to collect the eggs, left to get a basket and came back to see a speckled sussex with a face full of yoke, slurping eggs faster than a world champion oyster eater. I lifted her to get her away from the eggs but she wriggled out of my grip and I decided she was probably possessed as she continued to slurp frantically even when I sprinted her across the yard and left her by the house. Anyways, this is pea problem number one: that speckled sussex had started eating weird things, and getting the others to do the same. I looked out the window yesterday, sure I had collected all the eggs before letting everyone out to free range, when I saw the speckled sussex playing QB/keepaway with something white in her mouth. They continued this for hours and I assumed someone had fed them stale popcorn. I later saw the fanning peacock being herded by two other chickens while the speckled sussex ripped apart his tail feathers and ate chunks of them from behind. Please help! Problem number two is that the poor guy now hates to be around most of the chickens and tries to get into the open faced barn, which is off limits for raccoon reasons. I would like to continue to let him out of the covered run with the chickens during the day, but I've had to chase him away from the barn each time. Any ideas? He also has gotten a few burrs in his feathers, should I pull them out, or can he get them himself? Thanks in advance!
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