Merging the Tribes and A Rooster Among Us

It is becoming more clear every day that this chicken, below, is not a hen but a rooster. No crowing yet though. He’s becoming quite handsome. If I could just get a rooster that didn’t crow and was nice, I’d be so happy!

This is not a hen. It's a rooster. Evidenced by the long, greenish tailfeathers growing and the longer, more decorative feathers starting around the base of his neck.

Today was a big day on the farm. Not only was the weather spectacular (reaching almost 70 degrees), but the truck showed up with a new shipment of farm food. That always gets everyone excited!

This is actually the crowd gathered at the gate at dinnertime tonight.

But the really big news was that I merged the tribes, which is what I like to say when I merge two coops together.

My beautiful new coop was way underpopulated. At night I only had about 20 or so chickens in there. There are the 3 crazy chickens that sleep in the goat house, but they don’t seem like they’ll be changing that anytime soon.

the goathouse is on the right with the chicken run "silo" connected to the new chicken coop.

Yet my old coop, which was only meant to be used as a brooder coop for when they were small, was housing over 30 almost-full-grown chickens every night. They all managed to fit somehow, but it was pretty tight.

My old coop, Chateau de Poulet

Now chickens don’t like change. It takes days for them to adjust to a new coop. I’ve gone through this so many times I knew what to expect. Before I went out for afternoon activities with the kids I locked the chicken door in the old coop, blacking their access. I also hung a heat lamp (although any light would have done the job), in the new coop. I was hoping this ‘beacon of light’ would guide the young knuckleheads into the new coop as it started to get dark. No such luck.

Sure enough, when I got home and the sun was starting to get lower in the sky, all the adolescents were huddled outside the door and on the porch of the coop wondering why they couldn’t get inside. India, Evan and I spent the next 20 minutes chasing confused chicken around, picking them up one by one, and stuffing them though the chicken door. They seemed to be perfectly happy once I popped them into the new coop though.

Only two stragglers remained un-catchable. Here they are out in the dark (I used a flash).

Two stragglers out in the dark.

I finally ended up letting them into the old coop for the night as I gave up trying to catch them after about 10:30 tonight.

Once everyone seemed settled in to the new digs, I turned the bright light off but put a night light in there so the newcomers could find their way around if necessary. Yes, I really did put a nightlight in my coop.

Everyone's getting settled in for the night.

Taken from outside tonight, some of the original ladies settled on a high corner perch.