• Home
  • About Me
  • Dinner This Week
  • Writing/Photography
  • Sponsorship
Menu

My Bit of Earth

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number

Your Custom Text Here

My Bit of Earth

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Dinner This Week
  • Writing/Photography
  • Sponsorship

The Joining of the Flocks

June 1, 2015 Meryl Carver-Allmond
Combining chicken flocks

I always plan to do it more slowly than I do, but, ultimately, uniting our "baby" and "big girl" flocks each year almost always ends up being driven by space concerns.

Namely, we have X amount of space in our backyard, which must accommodate, not only the chickens, but a terrier and four humans, too.  Typically, we're staring down spring garden planting season, and I can't envision keeping everyone safe, separated, and sane for even one more day as I work in the garden.  (It's a bigger job than you'd think, I tell you!)

Combining chicken flocks

This year, I had foresight enough to pop the babies into the big girl coop the night before I was officially at my wits end.  The Kid and I went out in the dark with a flashlight and did our transplanting while everyone was asleep.  Some people say it's an old wives tale--that if you put chickens together at night when they're asleep, they'll wake up and not know they've ever been separate flocks--but I think it does help.

Another thing that helps is distractions galore.  Lettuce, radish tops, strawberries--I tossed all sorts of treats into the chicken run so that when they woke up they'd have much more exciting things to do then peck at each other.

Combining chicken flocks

And then, as long as no one's bleeding, I leave them to figure it out.  Thus far, the big girls have done plenty of pecking the littles--"the pecking order" is definitely not a wives' tale--but we haven't had bloodshed, which is the goal.  For as haphazard as this year's "joining" was, it's gone very well.

In Chickens and Ducks Tags chicks, chickens, urban chickens, backyard hens, backyard chickens, joining two flocks
← One of Four Redux [The Family Sweater Project]"Clean Out the Fridge" Savory Waffles →
meryl.jpg
{Subscribe by Email}

 {Subscribe in a Reader}


the ‘Gram

Shake date! 🥰🥰🥰
Painting rocks and making slime at the class Valentine’s Day party. ❤️
The Beyblade birthday party. I kinda like eight year old birthday parties. They’re a lot more self-directed than they have been. (Also kind of chaos and madness, but it’s a trade-off.)
Early birthday with Panga. 🎂
Harry Potter Book Night @lawrencelibrary is one of our favorites! (Except that both kids were for reals serious about the sorting this year!)
They like each other.
Hi. I love them. But I am also ready for the warm.
Because ice storm.

I *Heart*

stitchfix
ClubLottie_Ambassador_badge
Untitled design thredup_416x416 chatbooks-logo

Powered by Squarespace