My married woman , Chris , and I ’s Easter Egger hen , Frittata , just could not accept to have Carbonara anywhere near her . This was strange because Frittata is the smallest of our biddy and had always seemed at the bottom of thepecking purchase order . Plus , they had been hatchlings together and gotten along OK for a twain year .
But something had changed .
We accept this was just an attempt by little Frittata to move up the pecking order and things would settle down once the new arrangement was accept . hen will do this from meter to prison term as they get bigger or feel bolder or as a higher - up gets old and loses stamina .
The high up one is on the pecking order , the sooner it gets to eat up and drink . And it get more of any special amount of food , such as goody . It also can lay claim better spots on the roost .
So there ’s plenty of incentive to promote oneself .
But after a couple week , Frittata was still pecking Carbonara , who made no move to represent herself . She was unforced to acquiesce to demotion .
Frank Hyman
For Frittata , though , this still seemed personal . She was being a yob . So we withdraw her in the folding dog crate with nutrient , pee and tint just to separate the two for a few years . She and the crateful were inside the penitentiary , so she was safe from predators and close to her sister .
The Plot Thickens
But with Frittata out of the depiction , Gelato take over her Book of Job and chased Carbonara around the penitentiary . We noticed that to catch a break , Carbonara , the young of our two Buff Orpingtons , started drop her solar day mostly in a nesting box … everyone ’s favourite nesting box .
We move the wooden egg to another box , but everyone still seemed peeved about the whole thing . Carbonara even sleep there at night instead of join her sister on the roost .
So , we furloughed Frittata , scooped up Carbonara and put her in the crate so she would be out of everyone ’s way . Everyone stayed calm , so after a week we repay her to the universal universe and thing were fine again . While sitting in our Adirondack chairs for our nightly “ chicken television , ” we watched Gelato and Frittata buddy around with Carbonara as if nothing had ever been amiss .
Frank Hyman
That is , until Frittata looked up at Carbonara . We could really understand her change of kernel on her expression : “ I remember who you are now . And I suddenly ca n’t fend you again . ” Pecking , chasing and harsh squawking result . Carbonara retreated again to “ her ” nest box .
Read more : Click here to learn more about the political relation of the pecking order .
Hen Dilemmas
Chris and I checked through our Gallus gallus book . We compared notes on what we ’d each meet in our chicken habitat . We made a significant effort looking for a elbow room to solve this job and remove reasons for difference .
The only refutable affair we saw was that she did like to climb on top of the waterer — which was unmanageable to do — and sort of crow for an drawn-out period once a day at least . She was not crowing like a cock , more like the crowing that happens when one chicken has set an egg and a oecumenical solemnization goes up .
They all did that briefly at appropriate times . Frank Hyman
Frank Hyman
But this brag was very prolonged and not bear on to egg - laying . And it did n’t seem to be that she was tolerate from testosterone poisoning either . We survive in townspeople , so we do n’t have a cock .
She was n’t challenge our oldest , dominant hen , Buttercup , for position . And she did n’t fight back against Frittata or any of the four others when the residue of the flock decided they want to do the pop thing , too , and position into Carbonara and be part of the general , noisy , stressful havoc .
Try, Try Again
We put Carbonara back in the domestic dog crateful and things went back to normal . The other hen ignored her , and she did n’t crow . Since leave her for one hebdomad the first metre aid for a while , we decided to confiscate her for two workweek and see what befall .
We let go of her . Everyone got along . For about twice as long as the last sentence . Then , everyone suddenly remembered what they did n’t like about Carbonara . The pecking order tipped back , and it was like watching that movieMean little girl .
We never saw any stock , but the amount of interference was constant unless Carbonara was in her nest box . We concern that she would not getenough to eat up or wassail under these circumstances .
Read more : How should you treat a yob chicken ? Here are some tips .
Bird Brain
As a general rule , when the pecking order stops being a source of rich harmony for chickens , it ’s because the other hens smell some form of terror from another Gallus gallus and want to eject her from all their Rangifer tarandus games for their own safe .
We wondered if Carbonara ’s pointless crowing could be a form of genial illness . And perhaps the other chickens saw her behavior as somekind of threat .
Did they worry that she would pull marauder perhaps ? Did we need to dose Carbonara with something like poultry Prozac ?
Neither medication nor talk therapy seemed like a workable option . Yet here we were watchingMean Girls 2 : The Sequel . But it was in our own backyard and not make - believe .
Something had vary in the pecking parliamentary law . Carbonara could n’t do anything good . The others were henpecking her in an effort to restore the harmony of the flock . But she somehow was n’t follow with protocols .
She did n’t defend back . So she did n’t seem to be disputing her position in the cellar of the pecking order .
It seemed that the hens had an unresolvable job . And neither our efforts to sequester the dupe or the independent rowdy adjudicate the problem . We were stumped . Frank Hyman
We put Carbonara back in the crate a third meter just to have some restrained and to check that she would get enough to eat and drink .
Resolution
In my main business , designing and installing plants and garden social structure , I sometimes advise clients that we first have to engage in a practice that we professional call “ landscape gardening by subtraction . ”
Your yard may have some perfectly practiced industrial plant that are just not a well burst for your future garden for any number of reasons : too big , too skinny , crappy flowers ( yes , some flowers prefer flies over bees as pollinator ) .
It can be distressing to remove plants sometimes . But they often may find a home somewhere else , and the opportunities let on by their absence seizure always make up for that .
We agnise we had to prosecute in a morsel of “ biddy - safekeeping by subtraction ” for the good of our mountain . Because we think Carbonara ’s demeanor was provoking conflict with what had been a peaceful flock for seven yr , we could n’t in good conscience give her to another chicken - custodian .
And because our crybaby are our orchis - furnish pets , we literally could n’t stomach the idea of mow down her for our own using up .
I asked one of my rural co-worker if he would be interested in a gratuitous biddy for his table . His oculus clear , and he said his babe could make a very good soup . So , we had a few kind , last Logos with Carbonara .
She had been a good , beautiful and fat hen for a couple years . For some reason , she had started annoying her sisters , and consequently , she was n’t happy either . We gently put her in a favored mail carrier and gave her to my colleague who was respectful and whispered to her as he put her in his truck .
Chris and I both let out bass breaths as he drive away . We sit outside to watch some more “ Gallus gallus television . ” The pecking order was unchanging . The hen coo as they scrounge .
It was a pleasant relief thatMean Girlswas not playing on any of the channel .
This article in the first place seem in the March / April 2021 publication ofChickensmagazine .
