November 16th
The new hens from a friend... One has decided she does not want to sleep in the coop. We expected to have to put them in the coop the first night or two, after the first night they went into the coop themselves, but the last couple nights one (Lady aka Dark Meat, the Black Sex Link) has decided she does not want to sleep in the coop. She prefers a Pine Tree at the edge of the property. Her wings are not clipped, nor are several of the others, so she can hop/flap/fly up the fence and settle on the top of the fence or in the tree. Three nights in a row I pulled her down and put her in the coop, but last night even though we searched we could not find her. Sure enough this morning she was back but on the other side of the fence, talking to her friend through the fence. I walked around behind her and she headed to the front of the coop area and got herself trapped between me and the Broody Coop. Using a box I lifted her over the fence and she took off across the field to join her friend (Bazooka aka White Meat, the Aracana). I will be interested to learn if she decides to do the same thing tonight or not.
November 28, 2018
After multiple nights in the cold and several frustrating hunts for us and rescue missions to get the chicken back in the field where the food and water is, we finally clipped "Dark meats" feathers. For those unfamiliar with this, this is similar to cutting a persons nails, where that person likes to use the nails. Not painful, just frustrating for the bird to not be able to flutter/fly. We only clipped a few flight feathers so nothing that should impact her ability to keep warm. She has now decided the coop is not so bad and is making friends with a couple chickens to snuggle up to at night.
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