Changes at the Chicken Coop

Five of our older hens are losing their feathers.  The reduced sunlight in the fall causes chickens to loose their feathers in a totally natural process called molting.  As one author on the Internet stated, it looks like a pillow fight happened in the hen house.  All I know is that we have a lot of feathers and no eggs.

Reduced egg laying is another common feature of molting.  The birds needs all their nourishment to produce new feathers.

Writers on the Internet also mention that molting hens may be embarrassed to be without their feathers.  Supposedly you can tell this because the chicken coop becomes a much quieter place.

Mike and I have not noticed anything being quieter at our coop.  In fact, we are now hearing a lot of crowing.  It turns out one of our hens is actually a rooster.  I finally realized why that one Ameraucana chick was so much bigger than the other.  She is a he.  (I wonder if I can sue Buchheits for false advertising.)

I am not please by this turn of events.  I never wanted a rooster.  People I have talked to have said they are mean to both other chickens and humans.  However, that may not be a problem here as all of our six new chickens including the rooster remain at the bottom of the pecking order.  They are so timid that all six of them have taken to sleeping in the chicken nests at night instead of on the roost.  As a result, our chicken nests are now always a mess and the eggs that do get laid are none to clean.

Mike decided to try and rectify this situation.  He added a third roost to the chicken coop.  It runs perpendicular to the chicken nests so we were hoping it would become a more attractive place for the hens to roost at night.  The six newer hens were not impressed so now Mike and I close the nests at night to force the hens to use the new roost.

So I am once again in a war of wills with the animal kingdom although this time Mike is a participant with me.  Hopefully our united front will prevail.  Only time will tell.