Story game

[earlybird10842]

For the next few days, the four origanal hens, and the 11 new hens plus the rooster, got along well, but were divided into to distinct flocks. Big-person had put up a new roost to fit all the new chickens, and the new ones slept on that while the old slept on the origanal roost. Same with nestboxes. The new flock always ate from the outside feeders, while the old flock ate from the one inside. They never pecked each other, but it was as if there was an invisible barrier.

 

[earlybird10842]

"hey, you, um..." Indigo struggled to remember the name of the scrawny little partrige plymouth rock. "Pumpkin, what's that hen's name?" Pumpkin responded "that little one over there? that's Mabel." Oh" responded Indigo. "I've never heard her talk. Is she...?" "No" Pumpkin answered. " She's just shy. She will only talk to me and a few others. If you're nice to her, she'll warm up to you. She just needs kindness. You'll see.

 

[Chicken Tamer]

Pumpkin really liked the rooster, she hung around him the most.

 

[earlybird10842]

And finally, after a week of the invisible barrier, something surprising happened tht started the process of integrating flocks. Jujube made friends with Pumpkin. It started when...

 

[little farmer]

Jujube was sprinting out the flock pop-door into the run. *SMACK* Jujube ran right into Pumpkin. "Oh gosh!!! I'm so sorry!!! Are you alright?" asked Jujube. "Owww. Yea, I think I'm fine." responded Pumpkin. "I'm sorry." Jujube helped Pumpkin up. Jujube realized this would be a perfect time to introduce herself to a member of the 'new' flock. Jujube held out her wing. "Hi, I'm Jujube." said Jujube with a smile. "Yes, I know that." responded Pumpkin. "Oh. Well, yea, but that's usually how chickens meet each other if they're gonna be friends." said Jujube a bit crushed. "Oh!!! Well, I'm Pumpkin- as you probably know- Thanks for wanting to be my friend!! I was kind of getting tired of the 'invisible barrier' between the two 'flocks.'. Know what I mean?" "Yea" said Jujube "Yea, I think that it's time that we unite!!! I mean, we're really all one flock!! We should be more friendly to each other." "Good idea Jujube!!" "Sooo, friends?" asked Jujube again. "Friends." Said Pumpkin with a smile.

 

[earlybird10842]

So the two flocks began to merge into one. After the friendship was forged, Pumpkin and Jujube began to sleep next to each other on the roost, and the other hens followed their example. The conversations between flocks, which had been preiviously limited to polite but aloof greetings, became longer and freindlier. Even Mabel became less shy, and Indigo sometimes heard her speak, usually things like "pass the oyster shell", but she was talking netherless. There remained one problem: whether Pumpkin or Jujube would become head hen.

 

[tinkerbell13013]

Tiara-Tutu ran out the pop door and down the ramp, and took off flying. As usual, though, she crash-landed into the dustbath, nearly on top of Easter. "Hey! Tiara! Watch it!" Easter said protestingly. "Well, how else am I supposed to practice flying?" asked Tiara. Easter sighed. This stubborn little bantam had been quiet for the first few days in the new coop but now, as Pumpkin put it, "the real Tiara-Tutu is showing herself again, just like she was in quarentine." She insisted on trying to fly, sleeping in the nestbox instead of the roost, and laying eggs on the poop board. But she was a lovable little hen, and you had to forgive her when you looked at her sweet little face.

 

[earlybird10842]

Mabel was an explorer. Within the first week in the new coop, she knew of every nook and cranny and hidey-hole in the place. There was the little space under the nestboxes, which Big-person had walled off, but could still be accessed if you went into the little space between the floor of the raised coop and the floor of the run, then squeezed between the coop floor and the two-by four. There was the spot between the run roof and the coop roof (the two had been built seperatly, and at one corner the run roof sort of bent over the coop roof, which you could enter by flying off the outdoor roost onto the windowsill, and from there onto the coop roof.) Then there was the little nook between the poop board of the new roost and the roof of the new nestboxes. Then there were countless others. Mabel instinctively sought out hiding places, because her shyness made her a target for bullies, and she wasn't so sure about the four Origanal hens. One of them, Indigo, seemed to be a nice hen, and Mabel often saw Indigo smiling at her. The others seemed nice, but you would never know. Often a hen would be nice in genral, but mean to the lowest in the pecking order. Pickle, back at the old coop where they had been abandoned, had been a prime example.

 

[earlybird10842]

Indigo was staring off into space as she rolled around in the luxurios dustbath. Ahhh... that felt nice. She suddenly spotted Mabel trotting across the run. Indigo watched as she squeezed under the left side of the coop. What in the world was she doing? Indigo jumped up and followed her underneath the coop, arriving in time to see Mabel's legs dissapear through a gap between two boards. Indigo followed and found herself in a small room facing Mabel, who gasped. "Sorry!" Indigo said. "That's okay" said Mabel softly, and turned to leave the room. "wait! don't go" said Indigo. I was just wondering if...why...I mean...See.. why are you always hiding?" Indigo blurted suddenly.

 

[AraucanaAnnie]

Mabel sighed and turned away. "Oh, sorry!" said Indigo quickly. "No...it's fine. You see, Jujube doesn't want me around. What with Pumpkin threatening to become boss and all, she doesn't want me ruling it for her." Indigo felt sorry for the shrunken little hen. She was about to make a proposal of friendship when Tiara-Tutu called from across the coop. "Indy! Innndy!" As friendly as the silkie was, she could be annoying. "Have you seen my mealworms?" She clucked. "No!" Yelled Indigo and she turned back to Mabel. But the Partridge rock was gone. Meanwhile, Tiara-Tutu was having problems of her own. It was that annoying serama again, what was his name? Tigger? No it was Tiger. Today it was her blue skin. "I'd be SO embarrassed if I had blue ears!" he sneered. She rolled her eyes and snapped back, "Well, it would be much worse if I was supposed to be a girl!" She'd hit a nerve. When Tiger had first come, he was a "pullet", and this caused him much grief. Hurt, he straggled away to bother someone else...