Five of the original six, reunited after raising their kids. This is their favorite spot for waiting out the rain.About a month ago I decided it was time to put Phoebe back with her flock. Her chicks were 9 weeks old and she was getting a little testy with some of the larger cockerels. I made the mistake of just setting her out of the pen and thought she would happily scamper off with her former flock who would welcome her back. Wrong....! Rudy immediately began to chase her and she ran shrieking as though a terrifying predator was after her. Now you have to understand that in Rudy's mind, he was rounding up one of his hens. One of a roosters jobs is to keep the flock together and safe. When the hens wander back to the coop to lay eggs while freeranging he comes running when he hears the "egg song" and escorts them back to wherever the rest of the girls are. Here at last was one of his sweeties...gone for over three months.... Well Phoebe was just back from maternity leave, had been cooped up with 11 babies that were becoming brats and here comes this huge mass of testosterone rushing to turn her back into a baby machine. I caught up with Rudy and put him in the coop for time out. I held Phoebe for awhile until she calmed down and her little heart stopped beating so fast. I put her down with the two girls who remained with Rudy when the other three went broody and went off to raise families. I thought she'd be welcomed and embraced...sisterhood, right? Wrong! Sadie, who assumed head hen position while Phoebe explored motherhood, walked over and pecked her on the head. Phoebe cowered! I've never seen Phoebe be submissive in any way, she used to throw Rudy off her back and one certain look from her was enough to send the other hens running. I decided that she and I had had enough drama and trauma and put her back in the pen with her kids.
I decided on a plan. I'd devote the whole next weekend to re-uniting Phoebe with her former flockmates. The plan was to introduce both Phoebe and Izzie back at the same time. Even though Izzie was not showing the signs of restlessness that Phoebe was, and was still attached and attentive to her 8 week olds, I felt that there was safety and solidarity in numbers. I kept Rudy penned and threw out some corn. I let all four girls scratch and eat for a while. They were together yet separate, Izzie kept running back to her babies until I threw out yet more corn. After about an hour with no confrontation, I picked up Rudy and held him for another hour as we watched the girls. He struggled mightily at first (he so wants to be in charge) but after a while he grew calm and when I turned him loose he was a gentleman and just chortled that there was food to be found. I hung around the rest of the day to supervise. I didn't want to interfere with them too much as this would prolong the re-establishment of pecking order, but I wanted to be sure no blood was shed in the process. At one point Rudy decided to get reacquainted with Izzie and I had to crawl under my truck and peel her off my muffler where she was hiding. By nightfall Sadie took forever to join the others on the roost...Phoebes is BACK....
Four weeks later. They all hang as a flock, but the dynamics are subtly different. They all get along, Phoebe is less domineering, and Izzie is still very timid. We all are changed and affected by our life experiences I guess.
Soon it will be time to integrate Ellie as well, then the original six will be back together again...the same yet changed.
