ChickEnTroduction

New Kids on the Block

This morning we added 6 older girls to our flock. The six chickens (5 Rhodies, 1 Barred Rock) looked quite peckish with large bald spots, obviously in the midst of their molt. We plan to increase their protein intake immediately to give them a boost through their molt. Tom of A&L Feed, suggests adding 10% cat food to their layer pellets. We'll probably go with what we give our girls, oat groats with yogurt and a little raw hamburger and hopefully watch them quickly regain their feathers where they look like they've been picking on each other.

They were silent the entire car ride, but popped quickly out of the boxes when placed in the pen. After a short debate, we let our girls come in to see what was going on. The posturing started immediately and blood was drawn on both Dora, the Buff Orpington, and our Barred Rock. In fact, Dora now sports a nasty blood blister the size of a quarter near her ear. The new girls are scrappers and when they got down and dirty, they didn't let go. Agh, I detest violence, even when it is the natural course of things.

We spent the majority of the day in and out of the chicken yard and the two flocks spent the day ignoring each other after the initial blood letting. The new hens had to be placed in the coop and chose to stay on the floor rather than risk a roost invasion. GOOD I say! I am still quite anxious as to what we may find in the morning as I had a dream two nights ago of feathers everywhere and only two of our birds left.