Winter 2024 update

It's forecast to get very cold the next two days -- with a wind chill of -23 C (-9 F) so this evening I put the hens in an enclosure in the basement. They're snuggled in a bunch of straw -- perfectly calm and quiet as long as it is dark. I plan to keep the blanket over the enclosure most of tomorrow except for midday to give some food and water.  Hopefully they experienced enough cold this afternoon that they're appreciative of being indoors - ha ha. 

This year we have 6 hens -- Barney, the big cream color one is 10, and there are 5 bantams who are 3 years old. In September old Fancypants Johnson died of old age at age 14. She was arthritic, slow, and Barney had been picking on her. I was monitoring for signs of suffering when I noticed she spent the day up in the nest box. I wasn't a bit surprised to find her expired the next day.  

Oddly, within a week of her dying, Barney's behavior started changing. For some background -- Barney has always been quite a bully -- pulling out other birds' feathers, not letting the others onto the highest roost by pecking, and guarding food.  I had considered culling her this past year since she has stopped laying eggs and to protect Fancypants.  Anyhow, when Fancypants died, an odd behavior set in where she started mothering the bantam hens. This means letting them sleep next to her (or under her as you can see in the photo) and calling them over when special food is thrown to them. 

In this video taken today, when some pea sprouts are thrown in, she clucks to call the smaller birds over (instead of just starting to eat as fast as she can). She picks up the peas and breaks them into smaller bits and drops them on the ground like a mother hen would. She does this for a bit and then starts eating some herself. The other day I was working with compost and thought "surely after 3 months she won't be so generous with worms". I threw some in but she did the same thing -- even more loudly since worms are a favorite. 

I am finding this so fascinating -- in 10 years she has never raised any chicks and rarely spends any time brooding eggs on the nest. I wonder how long this will continue and whether she'll revert to her old ways.