Polly is a Barred Rock with speckled black and white feathers. Polly seems to be at the top of the pecking order. She was the first to lay an egg and now gives us an egg nearly every day. Polly lets us hold her and comes running when we call. Polly is our fourth Barred Rock over the years and all our BRs have been very tame and great layers.

Della is a Delaware hen. White with a little black around her neck and tail, she’s sweet, curious and quite tame. Della began laying at 21 weeks. Her eggs are light brown and small/medium in size. She is not easily ruffled by children or the dogs. She is making a great pet as she lets us hold her on our laps.

Anna is Polly’s look-alike. Both Barred Rocks, they look so similar it is hard to tell them apart. Anna has a distinct personalty, very curious, and is the tamest of all the hens. She follows us around, especially if we have something in our hands. She is very curious about everything. When my grandson visited, she followed him around pecking at the buttons on his pants. Anna began laying eggs at 23 weeks.

Easter Egger

Dixie Chick is an Ameraucana, or Easter Egger. She is a tall bird with beautiful bronze and gold feathers. She is a bit shy and runs if we reach for her. She lays beautiful, large green eggs. Dixie was a moderately early layer at about 25 weeks and lays about 4 big eggs a week.

François, or Franny, is the clown of the flock. She is a free spirit usually ranging away from the others. She would be at the bottom of pecking order except she is spunky and won’t take any nonsense from the others. Her breed is a Salmon Favorelles, developed in Northern France, thus the French name. She has feathers on her legs and an extra toe on each foot (typical of the breed).

Big Bertha, a Dark Brahma, is the biggest and shyest, of all the hens. She runs and squawks loudly if we try to pick her up. She is huge and will probably weigh 8 lbs. as an adult. Brahmas are known to be quite mellow, but at 24 weeks, Big Bertha is a bit of a “scaredy cat”! We’ll see if, over the years, we’ll be able to gain her trust and  pick her up and pet her.

Henrietta eating watermelon with her new roommate, Goldie.

When you get new hens, you don’t know if they will get along together. You hope there won’t be a problem hen in the flock. You have to give it some time while they become acquainted and the pecking order is established. When we bought two hens from one backyard flock and two hens from another, we thought we’d made good choices. We considered breeds and age. All the hens were under a year old and all fairly good sized and known for egg production.

One speckled Sussex was quite striking. She had real spirit. When she scratched in the dirt, dust flew, and when food was brought to the flock, she was the first one to grab it. What became intolerable was her constant picking on Zelda, the Easter egger and Marigold, the buff Orpington. She wouldn’t allow them to eat or drink. Their combs were covered with scabs as Marigold was taking bites out of them whenever they wandered too close.

One morning my friend across town called to tell me a fox had killed one of her two hens. She had had people for dinner and had been distracted when cleaning up. When she’d gone out at twilight to lock her hens up for the night, the hen was dead. She said she usually locked the two girls up in the late afternoon when the fox was in hiding. “Do you have a hen I could put with my lonely solitary one?” As a matter of fact, I did.

I am hoping that Henrietta, with a huge new run with lots of room to peck and scratch, will be a good companion for a young sex-link. And, so far it has been ideal. They’re good friends and there is no other hen (to be “odd man out”) for Henrietta to pick on. I’m hoping I’ve found Henrietta’s ideal home. I’ve learned that if there is a problem hen, sometime it is better to rehome her if you can. A different environment and different companions might be just the thing for a problem hen.

Adding new hens to your flock is not easy!

Henrietta the Speckled Sussex hen.

What an experience we’re having trying to create (integrate) a small flock of four young hens. I bought two hens from a gal who had hand-raised six chicks. She advertised them as “10-month-old hens”. One, a speckled Sussex was strikingly pretty and the other, a barred rock nice looking, robust and healthy. I DO like barred rocks. They are great layers. The previous owner wanted them to stay together as they were very bonded.

I paid $25 each for them. I think this was a fair price in our county.

We brought the two hens home and put them in in their new pen. They were a happy pair, scratching in the dirt, dust bathing, and laying in their new nest boxes.

On the Monday of the next week, we bought two pretty hens, also 10 months old. This was from a lady who had a “chicken-and-egg” farm in the south side of San Luis Obispo county. The young hens were beautiful and I bought a Buff Orpington and a black Easter Egger. They were a bit smaller than the first hens I had bought and appeared less mature.

We put Team #2, the Buff Orpington and the Easter Egger, on the roost after dark. In the morning, all hell was breaking loose and “hell” and bullying has continued for 30 days. In the past week, there are times during the day when things seem quiet. But there was a time that Team #2 was being dragged from the nest boxes. We put a ladder in the coop for Team #2 to climb up on so their heads wouldn’t get bloodied. That has helped, they have a place to get away.

Though I know they are establishing their “pecking order”, this behavior is difficult to watch. I’ve never been good a toleration.

I wish that I had gotten 4 pullets from the same place, all the same age. It would have saved me much angst. The downside of having a hencam is, I can see all the “goings on” as the hens adjust. Not pleasant to watch.

Sweetpea and Ginger have a blooming rosebush in their outdoor coop.

Due to human error, our hens, Sweetpea and Ginger, were killed by a raccoon or fox.

We’d let the girls out in the garden for a little sunshine and free-ranging. The wind came up and blew down a large pine tree. The door to the henhouse blew shut. We were busy assessing damage all afternoon. Twilight came and from the house, the coop door appeared shut. Little did we remember our hens were let out that afternoon.

In the morning we found them dead.

Hens, Sweetpea and Ginger were killed by a raccoon or fox. It appears as if a fox or raccoon killed them in the night.

I am sick about this. I had nurtured Sweetpea after a dog attack and she was eight years old. That is old for a hen. Ginger was four years old and had been given to me by a neighbor. A sweet and gentle Buff Orpington.

These hens died as a result of “human error”. I will be getting 3-4 pullets soon. I will think twice before letting them out as I know bad things can happen. I feel awful!