You are most kind rereading my stories. I fear I may be getting like my grandmother and staying to repeat my stories too much.Awesome interview @BY Bob ! I read the cherry pie story all the way through again (and the whole interview), even though I already knew it.
I fear that there may be a Phyllis comes to dinner story in my future.
Thank you. You are most kind to say so.
My bantams know I'll make sure they get preferential treatment but if a higher status girl arrives they freeze. What I find most interesting is who is allowed to eat with whom. Alpia & both Aoife & Medh tolerate each other but Aoife won't tolerate Medh & always gives her a sharp peck to drive her away; Ha'penny will tolerate Alpia but none of the other Campines. Wrold will peck Alpia, who was higher but seems to have slipped in the rankings. Both Araucanas seem to be loners. Beatha will eat from my hand but she's a biter so I discourage her; Mhari will not. Suyin spends most of her time pushing other hens off the food while not eating herself. While it is noisy the girls are generally well behaved & operate according to chook law.
She has the best of both worlds right where she is! She can keep an eye on Bucket Boy & her tribe @ the same time! Smart girl!
I must remind myself to write about high level cooperation I've seen in Tribe 2 one day. Quite extraordinary behaviour.I have been thinking about something @Shadrach said about the Pecking Order being more co~operative than is generally thought so I have been watching my girls a little more closely than usual.
There are 2 times in the day when I usually spend time when I can observe them: feed time [which happens between 2.30 & 3 in the afternoon] & roosting time. Feed time can be fairly chaotic. I have a lot of chooks vying for my attention & depending on what their day has been like it is when I will see the occasional dispute. Feed time signals the winding down of their day. They are back in the coop area. If there is any sunlight someone will be hogging it. There is a lot of preening & lots of the girls take a last dust bath in the sand pit under the coop.
Once everyone has eaten it is generally a very peaceful time of day until I appear with a handful of corn to tide them over the long cold night.
My big girls often don't eat @ feeding time. They generally perch on a log & oversee operations.
My middle order girls hog the tubs & all the lower order girls swarm around me. This includes Ha'penny & Lavender, definitely middle order these days, but part of the original girls I began handfeeding to ensure everyone got something. All the Campines tuck in. Honestly, they are mad, mad women. They have no qualms about giving me a tap to let me know they're there or eating from my hand, but any move to be more friendly & they act like I'm the devil incorporated!
Roosting is another matter. It seems to be a case of first in, best dressed. Everyone wants to be on that top rail. However there doesn't appear to be any set order in which the girls head off to bed. Often the bantams will be first but that does not ensure they will keep their position. Lavender often dithers so long there's no longer enough space for her to hop up. If she makes it there is usually a bantam under each wing. She doesn't seem to mind being a surrogate mother.
As @BY Bob has pointed out, my girls are crazy about squishing as many of them as possible onto that top bar ~ but it will not hold all of them. It won't even hold most of them comfortably & this is where it gets interesting; they seem to be taking in in turns as to who has to roost on the 2nd bar. Every night it is a different 2 or 3 girls ~ including my top hens! Everyone seems to have to take a turn having a cooler night. This is incredibly egalitarian of them! I've been monitoring this for weeks now & every single bird has had @ least one night on the second bar. Yes, my lower ranking girls are more likely to be on that 2nd bar but they are often paired with a top ranking bird. Even my lead hen has taken a turn. It is the luck of the draw as to who gets a really cold night. Ha'penny, who is having a really heavy moult, was on the 2nd bar for the coldest night we've had so far. I was a little concerned but she was fine. Even the silver Campines, who are prone to simply jumping up onto backs & wiggling till gravity drags them through a swath of feathers to the bar, have taken their turn. The man is talking about extending the top bar along the northern wall but like so much else around here it is unlikely to be happening any time soon.
Do share more, perhaps an example?
Please do. I know there are all sorts of ways in which my girls co~operate. Sometimes I'm not overly sure what I'm actually seeing as I'm still pretty new to keeping chooks long term & there's lots of stuff I don't know. Some Campine behaviour is really complicated ~ far more so than some of the other breeds but I also think they are extremely intelligent which may affect but what I am seeing & how I interpret it.
