The Cottage Smallholder

Barbie has finally tumbled to the bottom of the pecking order. The chicken that holds this place is the one that does not fight back when pecked. Mrs Boss languished there for four years but has found new status since she has hatched out five guinea fowl keets. She has her own coterie and doesn’t need the companionship of the other hens. They, on the other hand, want to be around Mrs Boss. Perhaps they have heard the cluck that she is now the heroine of two movies on YouTube.

Barbie has always been a pretty bantam. She is noticeable as her comb is long and bendy. She flicks this comb like a girl flicking back a long fringe.

This summer, age four, she went broody for the first time. The anti broody coop worked like lightning. Despite escaping on the first day, she only needed one more day in the clanger before her comb was back to its normal red and she was released to roost with the rest of the flock in the evening. She shot straight from jail up to the dormitory and hunched on the perch.

Every morning I toss a handful of grain to our chickens. This is a good move. Firstly they associate you with the largess of extra treats and secondly, you can assess what is going on with the flock. This can just be the briefest headcount. Chickens love grain, especially if their diet is layers’ pellets. I give them a mix of deluxe parrot and wild bird seed. This gives them a good mixture of grains, from sunflower to linseed. If one does bird does not appear, you can let yourself into the run to check what is happening, with no danger of the more adventurous ones escaping as they are all hoovering up the grain.

At the moment, Barbie stays at the far end of the run when I appear with the morning treats. In the past she joined the others. Mrs Boss immediately springs into action. With 5 keets at the helm she is an imposing barricade. And Barbie has been chased away.

When I decided to toss grain in both ends of the run, Mrs Boss was at the Barbie end within seconds, whilst Barbie lingered behind the hen house. Eventually I twigged that if I scattered the grain thinly along the 30 foot stretch, every single bird would have a chance.

This morning, Barbie enjoyed a tasty snack but kept to her end whilst the other birds companiably tucked in at the other end. She looks extra tatty as she is moulting, which is happening to the entire flock with the exception of Mrs Boss and the keets.

This morning, watching Barbie, I realised that it must be so lonely being at the bottom of the pecking order.

Apparently, if you hang a cabbage in the run just high enough for the chickens to stretch to peck, this can relieve bullying. Tomorrow I am going to try this. There will have to be 2 cabbages at different heights as Carol is twice as big as Mrs Boss.