Chicken question which Stephanie may know the answer to: why do my birds all try to group together at night huddled up on a top shelf smushed together rather than roosting on their oh-so-cool twisty willow roosts? Three or four of them also huddle in the nesting box. I assumed when they were young and it was nippy out, this was all about sharing body heat, but now that it is stifling hot at times in the coop, I would think they'd use the roosts more often. I did add another, slightly higher roost, the other day, and am finding more roost-ers now. Perhaps they just need to mature a bit more...?? They are getting close to laying age - early to mid August I believe, and maybe that will bring some changes. Who knows.
I also have found I have two roosters, the Welsummer who colored up early, and a Russian Orloff, who is less dramatic but I think larger. He has just started developing his tail feathers and I caught him crowing the other day. So far, no rooster wars, although I will likely try to foist off the Orloff on either my sister (she experienced a major chicken massacre about a month ago) or one of my two neighbors who both have hens but no roosters. As long as I am adding a cock-a-doodle-doo to the morning mix, they may as well join me.
To keep this on track re gardening - they are sure good little compost machines, I toss just about all our food scraps and many of my garden trimmings into the chicken yard and they either eat them or scratch them into smithereens in search of bugs.
