Flock Dynamics and the New Year

It was a busy 2016 with our landscape company getting busier and keeping up with chores around our property.

Except for Jasmine, all the girls have been molting and not laying eggs. Physiologically, they generally don't lay eggs and grow feathers: both taking similar proteins to do that. So, I'm down to 1 egg a day.

Molting is not a beautiful thing. Here's Curious growing new butt 
feathers. The good thing is it gets rid of her always-poopy butt for a while.

When winter sets in with  shorter daylight, the egg production drops. Chickens lay the best when they have 12 to 14 hours of daylight. In December with short days and without supplemental lighting in the coop, production stops or slows way down....well, except for Jasmine aka
"Egg Laying Machine". 



Commercial egg farms use artificial light to stimulate continuous egg production and the chickens 'burn out' sooner. I turn on a low voltage an automatic light around 7 a.m. so they can see to get down off the roosts. [chickens have poor night vision].

My flock is composed of the Old Girls [ Curious, Fearless and Gabby] and the New Flock [Hosta, Jasmine, Ivy, Kiwi and Lilly]. The leaders are Curious and Jasmine. The lowest are Gabby and Hosta. 

In 2015 during the molt, Fearless mounted a coup agains Gabby and moved up to 2nd place. Gabby, always being more gentle natured, just accepted the move and she has higher ranking than the New Girls. She won't hesitate to peck someone if they are getting her food treat, however. 

Hosta gets pecked on by everyone. And, she is such a sweet girl, too.
She has learned how to dance around the others to get a tasty bite of scratch or other offered goodie.  Lilly seems to be particularly harsh to Hosta, partially to make sure that she maintains her ranking higher than Hosta.

Ivy is mean to both Hosta and to Lilly - not wanting either one to get something to eat that she wants. A peck or a chase away just adds to the dance that the 2 lower girls have to do so that they can also get a goodie.

Curious growls at everyone. And, you know its a growl, not a chirp or a coo or a cackle. She just barely has to look at another chicken and they move away. A growl clearly means "stay away from my food or else..." Even Fearless gets the growl if the food stakes are high.

In the 2 flocks that I've had, there is always one girl I call the Coop Mistress. She seems to be the one that reads me the riot act if I'm inside the coop cleaning the floor or nest boxes. Gabby and Lilly have that title. Whenever I go inside the coop, its not long until they come in and chortle at me. It's like they have to keep tabs on what the human is doing inside: it does really agitate them if I spend too much time there! And, no one likes it if I'm cleaning up while they are on the nest box doing business!! 

Lilly is also the lookout: she makes the first alert call when she hears me coming thru the big gate that surrounds our olive trees, chicken coop, barn, compost pile and pepper garden. Then, everyone crowds the door knowing I bring snacks.

Kiwi ranks 2nd to Jasmine, and I think she'd be first, but she is smaller than Jasmine. They have to know what the other is doing: neither one is getting one-up on the other. I've watched the subtle interplay when one is eating or exploring and might have something interesting - the other one will rush over saying "You aren't going to out do me! Give me that!" Sometimes a steal occurs, or a deflection with a tap dance to move away.