There's always a pecking order ...

I currently have 6 chickens.  I say currently because even though we are in the middle of Houston we have a lot of predators that have given me cause for a broken heart over and over again.  Over the years I have learned a lot about the sounds and hunting practices of hawks, raccoons, coyotes, feral cats, and owls.  I’m always on the lookout, especially for hawks.  The picture below show 3 hawks chowing down on a rabbit they caught in my back yard awhile back. They have taken out more of my chickens than I care to remember.  OK so this discussion is depressing me so I’m moving on…. 

 I love watching my crazy crew of animals and how they interact with one another.  They each have their own personality which surprises a lot of people when I talk about them.  Here’s a quick list of my current chicken crew: 

• Marilyn (named after Marilyn Monroe), who is my Welsummer mother hen.  She’s 5 years old and is my oldest which is attributed to her being a really smart chicken.  She’s at the top of the chicken pecking order and very patient with the younger chickens but always puts them in their place if warranted.
• Peeper,  a Barred Rock hen, who is next in the pecking order.  She’s about 3 years old and a little smaller than Marilyn.  She’s the bully of the chicken coop.  I’m sure this is due to the fact that she’s always been on the bottom of the pecking order until the other chickens unfortunate demise occurred.  When the new girls came along she was determined never to be on the bottom again hence the bully reputation.  All the little ones are scared of her and that’s just fine with her.
• Lucy, another Barred Rock hen that I just started raising from a chick about 4 months ago.  Lucy has learned well from Peeper and has made sure she is next in the pecking order by keeping any other smaller chickens in their place with a good peck on the head when they start getting a little uppity.  Lucy’s named after Lucille Ball.  She’s always curious and getting into things. 
• Goldie, she’s my Ameraucana who I raised from a chick with Lucy.  Goldie and Lucy are buddies.  Goldie is barely hanging on as the next in the pecking order which is mainly due to her being buddies with Lucy.  Lucy always has her back and Goldie panics if she can’t find Lucy.  She follows Lucy everywhere.  She now and then tries to play tough but ultimately backs down and runs behind Lucy for protection.
• Then there’s Mr. Roo….this one is a bit of a mistake and I’m not sure he will be around long.  My neighbor had a hen that hatched a bunch of chicks about 2 months ago and asked if we wanted some so we took 3 not knowing what we were getting.  Two of them were hens and one is Roo.  We know this because Roo has just started crowing.  For those of you who have not heard a young rooster crow, it’s a pretty pathetic sounding noise.  He’s working on perfecting it though and as long as he is nice and crows only during the day we might let him hang around.  The jury is still out on that one.  Roo continues to challenge the 4 older hens and continues to get pecked back into place.  These hens don’t take any crap from anyone. Least of all from some little rooster who thinks he’s a big deal!
• Last but not least of my chicks is Pinky so named for the feathers on her hair that looks alot like the singer Pink’s hair style.   Unfortunately for her, she is on the bottom of the pecking order.  She is the youngest hen and has such a sweet disposition.  Roo and Pinky are buddies since they were raised together before going into the coop and are chicken mutts, the result of a Polish hen and a Barred Rock rooster.

As I mentioned earlier, in addition to the chicken clan we also have my peacock gang.  I call them a gang because that is pretty much how they act around the chickens.  We have two peahens, Curly and Larry, and one peacock, Mr. Blue. Yes, he was going to be named Moe but the name Mr. Blue stuck since he’s such a beautiful shade of blue.   Interestingly enough they are also part of the pecking order even though they are not kept in the coop. 

•  Ms Curly is the bully of this group.  She bullies everyone…. chickens, peacocks, squirrels, birds, cats, even hawks… except Mr. Blue and us of course.  She’s smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds her.    You can always tell when she is getting perturbed and is going to go after someone.  She walks up looking sideways at whoever is her next victim.  I’m convinced that that’s where the term ‘looking sideways’ at someone comes from.  
•  Mr. Blue’s next in the pecking order of the gang.  He doesn’t really bother anyone though and spends most of his time showing off his feathers. He only gets cranky when there are treats to be had and someone is too aggressive for his taste.  He’ll give them a good peck to let them know who’s boss and who gets the treats first.   
•  Larry is on the bottom of the peacock pecking order and is even below Ms Marilyn.  She loves hanging with the chickens.  The first year that she started laying she ended up with an egg impacted in her and we had to have her operated on to take it out.  She was relegated to the chicken coop while she recuperated.  From then on she kind of bonded with Marilyn and will hang out by the coop most days.    She gets picked on by Curly on a regular basis.  

 We also have a bee hives in the back of the property.  I just think beekeeping is so neat and watching the bees is so fascinating.  More on this later....