The chickens were just starting to sort themselves out when I threw a spanner in their election. I separated them. I want to hatch eggs from both roosters, Winston Cheepers and Todd. Winston Cheepers is the superior-looking rooster but Todd has some genetics I would like to pass on. The hens need to be separated from the other rooster for four weeks to clear their systems. So they needed to be separated now.
Young rooster Todd went into the Corner Pen, with the Henley Hut. With him went Tiggywinkle, Jemima and Jenny Cheeply, some of the big faces of the election campaign. Tiggywinkle and Jemima were the front runners and Jenny Cheeply was the most charismatic.
That left Winston Cheepers in the main pen with Morpheus, Trinity, Helen Cluck, Ribby and the younger ones, Jacinda and Judith.
The chickens were not impressed. You can be sure that if you throw a spanner in the chickens’ plans, they’ll throw a spanner in yours.
Ribby took herself out by going broody. Winston Cheepers finally showed some of his allegiances by getting into the Corner Pen twice by flying over gates. He got his wings clipped. Then Jenny Cheeply made a bid to get back to the center of attention and flew over the gate. She got her wings clipped. I thought that was the end of that. Then Todd and his ladies were found in the main pen back with all the others one morning when I came home. They had pushed through the gate, which they had loosened by digging in the dirt around it. Oh, they’re organised all right. When I put Frodo and her chicks out into the main pen with with Winston Cheepers it caused quite a stir. Todd suddenly had a rush of responsibility and determination. He flew up onto one of the gates and loudly declared that he was coming for the main pen. But I was there. He got his wings clipped. I would like to say that that is the end of that, but I probably shouldn’t.
Now Ribby is raising chicks in the big cage and Morpheus is on the verge of taking herself out of the campaign. She’s been spiky and screechy off and on for some days. When Frodo arrived into the pen with chicks in tow, Morpheus became very spiky and screechy and flapped her wings repeatedly. She is the front runner in the election now, but can she hold herself together or is she going to go full broody? Winston Cheepers is suddenly distracted by fatherhood. Jacinda and Judith have been keeping off to the side while all the madness ensues. Well, they were, until I spotted Winston having a rendezvous with Jacinda. Trinity is probably thinking that this is her big chance. Helen Cluck doesn’t seem to know what’s going on except that she’s finally learnt to lay her eggs in the nestboxes instead of on the coop floor, out in the pen, up on the platform roost or on the concrete gap between the feeder and waterer. The eggs must shoot out of her like missiles because even the ones on the woodshavings sometimes have a crack at one end. Everyone not broody is laying except for Tiggywinkle.
Well, all I can say is that things are interesting, but we don’t have any answers yet. I don’t care who wins the chicken election as long as everyone will STAY IN THEIR PEN so I can hatch more eggs in a few weeks. That’s really not so hard is it?
Wild Hope Homestead 