For the last few nights I have been trying to get the new girls to perch with Pebbles. On the first night I moved the new girls from the cat box to the perch after dark.
The second evening I kept picking them up and putting them on the perch repeatedly as they kept jumping down again. I eventually returned them to the cat box until a little later and then put them on the perch.
The next evening I could tell that they wanted to go the perch but they wouldn’t stay there. Again I kept putting them back on the perch until they eventually stayed there as it was getting dark.
Last night I felt that they really wanted to go to the little perch but the other girls intimidated them and Pebbles also pecked them which was really not helping matters.
I stayed out with them until they were finally perched. The bigger girls do a lot of jumping up and down from their perch and a lot of pecking the girls lower down the order to keep them from perching next to them.
Added to this Pebbles would also peck at the newer girls. A few times the newer girls jumped to the perch themselves, so I can see that they want to perch up, it’s just so difficult to get all the girls settled with the bigger girls jumping up and down. By the time it had got a little darker they were finally all settled.
I decided that we needed to change the perch. It was fine for two little girls who wanted to be close to each other but wasn’t working so well with the current three. We decided to change the little perch for the longer one from the patio area. The extra space would allow the newer two girls to move further away from Pebbles and it has longer brackets which would make jumping up easier and mean we could place it a little higher.
I didn’t want to put it at the same height as the other girl’s perch or they would want to use it too which would make it even more difficult for the little girls.
The original little perch
The new perch with Pebbles trying it out
The three little girls perching together during the day
While three of the bigger girls perched above them
They look so cute together
What I can never understand is that all the girls, bigger and smaller, are happy to perch together during the day, so why the fuss at bedtime!
The three little girls managed to get on the new perch
The three little girls took their place fairly quickly on their perch but then the intimidating started. The big girls pecked each other down and in turn Speckles pecked at the little girls from her corner of the perch.
Almost all of the girls ended up back out again. I know that there is always a lot of coming and going at bedtime, but it gets sorted out in the end, so I decided to withdraw for a little while as I think sometimes my presence can make matters worse.
When I returned all the bigger girls had settled and Rusty had kept her position but Pebbles and Freckles were back out again.
I placed them back on the perch and all the girls stayed in place as the automatic door closed.
The final bedtime positions, Emerald is out of shot on the far right of the back perch
I think it will take a few more nights yet but I think we are getting there. It’s clear that the little girls know where to go, it’s just the jostling for positions that is making it difficult for them to get settled.
I hope over the coming evenings it will get easier because they need to learn to go to bed however much hassle there is. I don’t really know what else I can do but hope that it will settle down eventually. My husband suggested putting in another perch for the bigger girls on the other side of the shed which might be worth a try.
It does seem though, that no matter how much space, they still have to go through this ritual every night. I hope it gets better over the coming evenings.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Prehaps this is what happen every night, and is the normal thing that they do,
Do you know what, that is exactly what I said last night. When it wasn’t dark so early we used to go up after dinner and there were always a few girls still out, very often Peaches and Barley. We used to give them some dandelions and I used to think that was why they stayed out longer. If I did check on them earlier there was always a lot of jumping up and down, I have written posts about it before.
Then as it gets dark earlier I would go and check on them after dinner and they would all be settled. I think this is what they do all the time, it just makes it difficult for the smaller girls to settle. Speckles being bottom of the main group seems to be the one none of the girls want next to them. She in turn does the same thing to the little girls. I guess they are just going to have to sort it out eventually.
I’m still having to put my girls on the perch every night Carol – they all just sit in the pop-hole staring out at the world! :-0
That is so funny! I guess my girls aren’t so bad then, they do know where to go and want to perch, it’s just the intimidation. We have reinstated another perch in the opposite corner to see if that helps matters.