I should have known it would go down this way. When we put my five chickens in with Tim and Annie’s four chickens last Sunday, it was obvious that mine were bigger and (let’s face it) more beautiful.
The Rhode Island Reds have scrawny necks and look a little underfed. They have white outlines around their eyes that make them look scared. Or maybe they just are actually scared. Turns out the Silver Laced Wyandottes are bullies.
The RIRs had been in the large barn coop for several weeks already, about the same time my SLWs went into their spacious basement cage. The RIRs had staked out a nice spot in the southwestern corner where Tim put a box so they could play king-of-the-mountain.
I had hoped to move the SLWs directly into their outside coop and pen, but we didn’t quite get it finished by last Sunday. They were full-grown chickens by then and really needed to get out of my basement.
Maybe it was the cage-training, or the regular supplements of sunflower sprouts in their diet, or just their clear superiority as a breed. Maybe it’s because their mother (me) is from Chicago. Let’s just say it took them no time at all to chase the RIRs out of their corner and send them cowering to the opposite side of the stall in the cubby roosts.
The RIRs gave up playing king-of-the-mountain and have not seemed to catch on to the SLWs favorite game, chase-each-other-around and get-all-up-in-each-others’-faces.
When I went out to visit yesterday morning, the SLWs were sleeping in a tight cluster in the southwest corner, and the RIRs were resting up on a bale of straw by the cubbies. There doesn’t seem to be any pecking or damage being done, but there’s clear animosity.
This week the weathermen are predicting rain and temps down in the high 30s overnight, so we’ll wait to put the SLWs out, even though their coop got (almost) finished yesterday. Meanwhile, I’ve suggested the RIRs start getting some boxing lessons.