Updates

Today is day five of the tylan. The girls all look fine and the sneezing has gone down to occasional with Spangle being the one who is sneezing most.

I am going to stop the tylan for now as I know from last year that residual sneezing takes a while to go completely and I want to be able to use the tylan effectively during the colder part of winter if it is needed.

Cinnamon keeps Dandelion company in the small shelter

These two girls seem to be very close these days. As I have said before the girls that have been together the longest seem to have the closest bond.

The amigos gather around the water dish

The amigos are almost like a separate little flock. Because they came in together they tend to hang out together but I think that because they came in as a bigger group there aren’t any particular close friendships. There is quite a bit of pecking order stuff between them and at bedtime Smoke pecks the head of any girl next to her.

In other news the amigos have all managed to get in the shed at bedtime before the automatic door closes. I have started giving the bedtime corn at the earlier time of three o’clock and I now stay away until the automatic door has closed as I think that perhaps I distract them if I go in too close to bedtime.

The main flock are always on the back perch but with the head pecking going on amongst the amigos there is often one girl pushed down to the lower rung. I always move them up to the top rung as they would get pooped on if they stayed there.

I think the problem is that because the rungs are at angle across the corner, the bottom run is in parts, directly underneath the top rung. They are at an angle because of the pop hole. This makes it awkward for a girl to get from the corner of the bottom rung to the top rung.

I think the other thing is that this perch has only had three girls perching here before whereas now with five girls it is more difficult for them all to get in place.

The perches on the other side are not angled and so are more like a step up making it much easier to jump from the bottom rung to the top rung.

The amigos perch

The perch that used to be used by Cinnamon, Dandelion and the silky girls

What I am thinking is that if I could train the amigos to use this perch instead of the other one it would be much easier for them all to get to the top perch. The difficulty is that it is really hard to change a chicken’s habit.

It may be worth a try though as there is nothing lost if it doesn’t work and they continue to use the corner perch. I think I would start by moving them to this perch after dusk and then cover the corner perch with a bin bag the next evening.

It is forecast to be very cold over the next few nights so I will delay the training until it’s not quite so cold as it is more important during the colder nights that they settle easily. It may be a challenge. Watch this space!