A Bully in the Hen House

bul·ly

NOUN

1. a person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker.

   
   

VERB

1. use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants:

There is a bully in the hen house at Turkey Creek Garden!!  What's worse is that she is one of my favorite chickens! I didn't realize that Dolly was a bully until, due to the recently passing of Tanya (God rest her soul), I introduced a new hen to the flock. Meet Connie, named after country music's Connie Smith. 

Connie's name at her first home was "Sofa". I keep forgetting to ask Kathy about the backstory on that.

Connie is an Americana and was given to me by my good friend, Kathy Davis. "You need a chicken that lays blue eggs", Kathy said, and Connie's eggs are a pale shade of aqua blue/sea foam green.

So I had done my research on how to introduce a new hen to the flock. Connie had to be kept separate from Dolly and Patsy for the first week. The following week I let them out into the chicken yard together and there was much puffing of feathers and loud, raucous squawking as the girls began establishing a new pecking order. The old hens did chase Connie, but she soon found a safe hiding place behind the compost bin.

As the days went by, Connie came out of her hiding spot more and more. Patsy, the Barred Rock, was fairly tolerant of the new girl on the block, but Dolly, the Light Brahma, began to enjoy her role as top hen, and soon we had a bullying situation on our hands. Dolly had to be isolated!! I threw together a make-shift pen far away from the chicken yard and put her in solitary confinement. She also received daily bullying lectures.

After a few days in "time-out" Dolly calmed down; she needed to brought down a notch or two. Then I started letting the three of them free-range in the big garden. With so much space and so many more sprouts and bugs to eat, Dolly seemed more intent on eating than bullying. Connie is laying regularly which is a good sign, so I think we have gotten over the hump.

Yesterday in the heat of the day, I took them out some cold cantaloupe and I was pleased to see all three hens run up together and happily feast on their little snack.

Now the only lingering problem is roosting. Dolly and Patsy don't want Connie on the roosting poles. I tried adding a partition, but that didn't work. So right now Connie gets the coop and roosting poles all to herself at night, and the other two are sequestered to a roosting pole down in the run.

Sooner or later we've got to figure out the roosting situation. I am hoping the girls will do this on their own, but we'll see. Until them I am keeping a close eye on things!!

I let the girls each pick out the quotes for today's post.

Bless their hearts!

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Connie

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. ~Mother Teresa

Dolly

Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold.  ~Edmund Spenser

Patsy

In union there is strength.  ~Aesop