UPDATE: The coops have been renumbered, to make them more orderly, progressing from one through seven in physical order. The renumbering makes this post difficult to understand. We have tested "Frizzle" with various hens but ultimately we bought him three ISA standard size hens, Iris, Sparkle and Angel.
Little Tom and Marilyn moved in with Dusty and company.
Fritz did turn out to be very lucky getting his three ladies to keep an eye on and look after. Dusty ended up with the single largest flock. Read on to discover more.
We have been discussing the possibility of combining "Flock 3" (Frizzles group) with "Flock 4" (aka The Baby Hens). Today the two neighboring groups took matters into their own hands as Fritz and Little Tom breached the divider.
We anticipated chaos but to our surprise everything went very smooth and quiet, and once again, Fritz showed himself to be a true gentleman.
Little Tom pecked at and chased Natasha (just to let her know the new pecking order). That did not last very long, Natasha is happy to be low bird lol.
THE FUNNY THING
Midway through this experiment in chicken societal goings-on we reinstalled the barrier between the groups and both families of chickens seemed bummed out that they could not be more like the EU and travel freely between their respective countries. We once again removed the barrier and happiness returned, we're not blind, the chickens loved their new friends and freedoms.
Fritz, Tom and Marilyn visited the Flock 4 aviary and Fritz even went into their coop, as if he was checking it out for quality. Meanwhile, four of the Baby Hens could not wait to get into Flock 3's playground and start digging. Natasha looked around in the Flock 3 aviary and went back to digging in the courtyard.
At the end of the day everyone went back to their own coops and we reinstalled the barrier between the two flocks. Everyone spent the night in their regular coop location.
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
Fritz is on the verge of becoming the Baron of the Northern chickens with the possible combining of Flock 3 and 4. It will be our largest single group with seven females and one big handsome fluffy guy.
Flock 3 and 4 are currently serviced by two small Formex chicken coops. I ordered a new large Formex coop which is capable of housing eight bantam size chickens, just in case they all decide to move in together.
FRITZ, ONE OF THE ORIGINAL EIGHT CHICKENS FROM TRACTOR SUPPLY
Fritzy is very happy about the new changes :-)
Fritz drew the short end of the stick when the houses were being given out. He was one of four roosters we acquired in our first foray into chickens. Poor Lemon got confused and accidentally ran away. Raven became king of Flock 1 (It went to his head and now he's a dick!). Orangey also drew a short stick but eventually ended up with the love of his life, Henny Penny.
Fritz endured months of lonliness by himself, just pacing back and forth in his big area. Mary and Fritz began communicating via ESP and have since developed a close relationship (Fritz thinks Mary is one of HIS girls).
Now, with five new girls added to his personal harem, Fritz has the biggest flock on P2. Not all the details are worked out (like where everyone will ultimately be sleeping in the months ahead).
Ultimately it's why we have 33 chickens, we love them all, especially our roosters. They have the most interactive personalities of all the chickens.
