So. I made a huge mistake.
I thought it would be a good idea to let Mokey and her little babies out for a romp in the fresh air and sunshine. The rest of the flock was out prancing through the yard and I figured she’d want to be out there too.
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Just for some back-story into this terrible decision: Last year our head hen, Little Carl, hatched out 9 chicks and raised them to be upstanding citizens. We kept one of them, named Rosie, and the rest were given away to friends.
Little Carl raised her chicks in the coop, in a closed off corner. The rest of the flock could see and hear them, and they were all together as a group. When I let them all out into the world for the first time, the rest of the flock went about their business and any time they inquisitively came over to look at the chicks, LC would chase them away.
Let me reiterate that she was the head hen.
Meaning she was the boss and they were all afraid of her.
Mokey is not the head hen. In fact she was on the bottom rung of the social ladder until little Rosie came along and took that place. Mokey and Rosie had battled for weeks over who had to be the least popular and Mokey had rightfully won her place, at not-quite-the-bottom.
Fast forward to today.
I couldn’t manage to get all five peeping chicks and a wiggling momma hen out the door all at the same time, so I had to do it in batches. I figured I would take Mokey and one chick out first, then grab the other 4 after I’d set them down outside.
I put them down on the patio and Mokey headed right for the underside of the stairs, probably for a much needed dust bath and to show her littles what dirt is. I went back in and somehow managed to hold all four remaining chicks in my hands. By the time I came back outside it had already started.
Feathers flying and squawking, biting, clawing, screeching mayhem had ensued.
Rosie and Mokey were in the middle of it, at each other’s throats. Rosie must have felt threatened by the sudden re-appearance of her nemesis after a mysterious one-week absence.
She attacked Mokey relentlessly. Jumping on top of her, pulling out feathers with her beak, clawing at eyeballs.  Mokey was fighting back with all her might, with talons in the air ripping at any body parts that came into contact.
Meanwhile little Dahlia was peeping frantically and dashing around behind a pile of pots, and the rest of the flock was going after her. Mokey was attacking everyone all at once to protect herself and her new baby.
I stood completely stunned for a second, not knowing what to do. I tried to push Rosie off Mokey with my foot and then realized I was still holding four squirming chicks in my hands.
I dashed back inside, got them all back in their cage and came back out to save Mokey. I grabbed the dreaded rake (I use it like an extra long arm to corral them back into the coop) and chased off all the birds at once. Mokey was still freaking out, screaming and searching for her babies. I brought her and Dahlia back inside to settle down.
I stared scathingly at the rest of our horrid birds, who were pecking around in the yard as if nothing had ever happened. Who knew my sweet little chickens could be capable of such cruelty?
The truth is, this is how chickens operate. Their social order is different than ours. We establish hen head status by whispering about others around the water cooler, they establish it by beating the crap out of each other.
This type of behavior is not tolerated in our flock when a Momma hen is responsible for raising five babies. Knowing I’d have to try re-introduction in a different way on another day, I locked up the whole flock in the run and let Mokey and the babies out again to enjoy the sunshine.
It was precious to see her showing the babies how to take a dust bath, how to root through the soil for goodies, and how to bask in the sunshine. They copied every little thing she did and watched intently to learn how to be a chicken.
Now I’ll stop chattering about them and let you experience the day in photos.
They sure did have a blast experiencing the great outdoors for the first time. I can’t wait to take them out again!
Rosalyn says
Sorry for the drama! We have two hens (no babies) and as much as I love having them, I keep telling my husband that they seriously remind me of dinosaurs. They can be all soft and feathery and clucky on one hand, and sort of reptilian and vicious on the other. Just keeps them interesting I guess! I’m glad you got it sorted out. Good luck with the next reintroduction!
Meredith says
They seriously do! I wrote a post about it a few months ago, comparing pictures of our chickens to the dinos in Jurassic Park. They make the same faces and everything!
Erin says
As I was reading I could picture the flying feathers and imagine the squawking. I’m glad everything turned out alright. Looks like the babies had so much fun once the dust settled. What a whirlwind of emotions for just one day!
Betty says
The little ones are precious! It sounds like to hand your hands full – literally!
Caitlin | The Siren's Tale says
They are too cute.. I hope the days/routine gets easier soon! I can just imagine all the feathers flying around 🙂
Mike @ Gentleman Homestead says
That sounds… ummm… exciting?
Hope things have settled down for the new girls. We are broody-setting for the very first time and mama is #2 in the pecking order (out of 7), so I hope all goes well for us.
Meredith says
I hope all goes well for you too! I think slow introduction is key. After this mishap, we kept all the chickens in the run while we let the babies out, so they could see and smell them but not touch them. After a few weeks of that we let all the chickens free range together and now everything is fine. You can be sure I won’t make that mistake again, and I’m hoping writing about it will help other people avoid it as well.
Jared Hether says
Thank you for sharing this experience. For the past couple of years I have kept a few backyard chickens, just for eggs. Now, we are getting ready to move to our property where we will build a homestead. We will be getting some heritage breed chicks in June and this information will come in handy I’m sure. Could you help me with a blog question? How do you get the nice “share the love” banner you have at the bottom of your post? I would really like to use something like that on my blog. Thanks again, and please feel free to visit and/or follow my blog!
Meredith says
Hi Jared,
Thanks for the kind words! I’ll definitely check out your blog, I can’t wait to hear more about your move and building your homestead, it sounds super exciting! The share buttons are from a wordpress plugin called shareaholic. It works well for sharing, but that’s all I use it for as the other features are a little wonky and only work when they feel like it. Good luck with everything and thanks for stopping in!
Momo3Reds says
So I’m curious to know how the chicks turned out. Since Mokie was near the bottom of the social ladder, was she able to raise chicks that were NOT at the bottom but were able to hold their own with the other chickens or could she only teach them how to be at the bottom of the pecking order?