Tonight I went up to check on the girls before the pop hole closed and to take some photos of what is happening at bedtime.
This is what is happening at bedtime
The silky girls are blocking the pop hole
What happens is the amigos wait outside for the silky girls to perch. By that time the pop hole door is closing and some of them are not making it in.
When I opened the main door the amigos wanted to play too
This is where I become a distraction. By opening the main door it just encouraged the amigos to peck in the shavings too. Eventually I closed the door. The pop hole closed and I opened the door a little bit and put the silky girls on the back and the amigos on their perch.
I swept the patio as they had scratched shavings out and checked back in. Salmon was sat on Vanilla’s back! Honestly, these girls! I put her back on the perch next to Vanilla and closed the door once more. I waited a minute then looked back in and took two more photos.
The girls are now settled at the back
The amigos are settled at last
As it was dark it was a pot luck photo but I didn’t want to unsettle them by taking more than one.
I think that I make it worse when I go up at bedtime so I will check on them when the pop hole has closed and just put the stragglers in. I don’t think bedtime is going to get any better than this for now.
If the silky girls and the amigos were all part of one group I don’t think there would be a problem but because the amigos are below the silky girls in the pecking order they don’t have the courage to get past them when they are blocking the pop hole.
We had talked about trying to train the amigos to go to the perch on the other side or making a perch on their side that was the same shape as the one on the other side but in the end I think that nothing will solve the problem because it is down to Sienna and Jasmine blocking the pop hole.
At the end of the day it is a pecking order thing and that won’t change any time soon. By next year the dynamics of the flock may have changed but for now I will just have to put the stragglers in each night.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
High jinks!! xx
Notice the innocent little faces of the silky girls in the pop hole. It looks as if it should be so easy for the amigos to push past them but they just don’t have the courage.
There is often an amigo jumping on the back of another as none of them want to be on the outside. xx
What fun and games.
It sure is. They can no longer be relied upon to behave at bedtime. Once they are all perched they look so innocent!
Ginger and Bonny, my two youngsters, are subjected to the same treatment at the pop-hole on hen house number 3, where they prefer to be. Tubby, one of my silkies, waits just through the hole and every time they try to go in, until she gets onto a perch, they are sent packing! Bonny has taken to going into hen house 2, a shed just like your own, where I prop the door open and have a piece of wood about 4 inches deep across the front of the door, which prevents the shavings being dispelled all over! It seems that the wider entrance eradicates the problems of the narrow gap with the pop hole.
It’s interesting that it’s not just my me this is happening to. I hadn’t thought of propping the door open. I will try that tonight.
Last night I went up after the door had closed and all five amigos were shut out. They run to me then run ahead of me to the door and wait for me to open it. They are in in a flash so it’s obvious they want to get in.
It’s funny but it crossed my mind that two pop holes would be handy and yet I hadn’t thought of propping the door open until I go up and close it. I will see how this works tonight.