Author: Anna & Mark

Corn freezing day is our
chickens’ favorite since the birds absolutely adore the sweet bits of
kernel left behind when I cut future dinners off the cob.  Whoever
gets the most corn is clearly at the top of the pecking order, so I
keep my eyes peeled to see how my flock responds to the food scraps.

Mama hen is still the
meanest (and thus most dominant) chicken in the flock, but her chicks
are beginning to drift down the ladder.  At two months old, the
newly christened “tweens” no longer hug their mother’s side, and the
hen has also stopped protecting them from anything except the most
aggressive actions of the other chickens.  When Mama hen’s sharp
beak isn’t closeby, I see the old Golden Comets — next highest along
the pecking order — occasionally push a tween out of their way to get
closer to the best corn.

The pullets from hatch
one (now four months old) are at the very bottom of the pecking order,
so they rarely get to nibble at the corn cobs.  One settles for
pecking the insides out of an old cucumber while two others sneak
around behind the tweens.  They’ve figured out that the tweens
aren’t precisely higher or lower than them on the pecking order and
will eat alongside the pullets unless Mama notices and comes to chase
the interlopers off.  Before long, I suspect the pullets will have
crept up above the tweens on the totem pole (but perhaps not before I
put the tweens in the freezer.)

The oldest Golden Comets
let the pullets eat with them from time to time without showing any
aggression.  In stark contrast, the younger Golden Comet will
chase the pullets away anytime she notices their black faces.  I
suspect that the younger hen is more worried about keeping her place in
the pecking order — currently below all of the other adult hens —
and already foresees the pullets lapping her as they become more
confident.  So far, the Australorps haven’t tried to threaten
anybody, and eat tentatively when allowed the chance.

Within an established
flock, the pecking order tends to remain
relatively static — everyone knows the top chicken is the most
aggressive, so they stay out of her way and she seldom even needs to
throw her weight around.  That’s why it’s such a treat to see the
shifting alliances as youngsters are raised within a flock of adult
chickens.  But I’m also careful to make sure that everyone gets a
safe place to eat and drink, scattering their morning rations down the
entire length of the pasture and providing three separate chicken waterers at various spots.  Soon
enough, everyone will be grown up and they’ll all be able to eat and
drink together in harmony.

Chickens have an odd
habit of bathing in the dirt.  They find a dry spot with a lot of
loose soil and then scratch and flap their wings until their whole
bodies are coated with a layer of dust.

Even though the idea seems counterintuitive to us, dust baths actually
make a lot of sense in the chicken world.  Parasites (mites and
lice) can build up on a chicken’s body to the point where the birds get
sick or even die, but a few minutes scratching in dry soil on a regular
basis clogs the parasites’ pores and causes them to suffocate.  I
read a lot about red mites on other chicken keepers’ blogs, but our
chickens never seem to develop a problem, presumably because of their
frequent dust baths.

Unless your chickens are
closely confined, chances are they’ll make a dust bath for
themselves.  A patch of bare dirt combined with enough sunny days
to dry off the surface is all it takes.



Some chicken owners go a
step further, though, creating a dust bath box inside their chickens’
coop.  That way, the flock will have a spot to dust bathe even if
the weather is too cold or wet to allow outside bathing.  You can
fill a planter, plastic storage bin, or wooden box with about six
inches of soil, optionally adding in sand, diatomaceous earth, or wood
ashes for even better results.  You can mix all of these
ingredients into an outside dust bath too, but wood ashes will have to
be replenished after every rain.



My final word of wisdom
on chicken dust baths is — don’t think your chicken’s dead if you
find her in an odd pose out in her pasture.  I have to admit that
I’ve been taken in by the post-flutter sunning period multiple
times.  That chicken lying on her side with her legs and wings
stretched out just doesn’t look alive…but she is.