Feathering the nest(box)!

Erin called me out last night to see how the chookies had arranged themselves at bedtime.  The new girls have been with us just over a week now.  Judge Judy and Jo are the bosses but there is more integration between both factions and night-time roosting is now happening fairly smoothly.  Hooray!

On the first night, all the new girls were outside, perched on the nesting boxes cos the red chooks had banned entry to the coop!  We thought there had been similar shenanigans another night when the four new girls were again outside, in the rain, on top of the nesting boxes - though one red chook was underneath, a bit more sheltered from the weather.  However, the coop door had blown shut in the wind, so we gave the inside red chook the benefit of the doubt!

For the past few nights two chooks have cosied up together in one of the nest boxes.  It's not always the same two chooks and we have spotted a red chook with a black chook.  (It's harder to distinguish who is who by torchlight).  Our white girls are quite large, with Pooh II being the biggest of all.  We were therefore surprised to see both of them and a black chookie all squashed together in one nesting box - and have no idea why the other box was so unpopular!