Teenagers and nest slugs

It now seems that there may be three broody hens spending their days on nest boxes. The two old ones move around to different boxes to be on eggs recently laid by others. Another buff seems to want to join them. It is not clear yet if she has stopped laying her own eggs. Now and then we throw the brooders out and they spend a few minutes being grumpy outside or get picked on by the others and run back inside again. The rest roam around doing their work, which is eating bugs, taking dust baths and trying to stay cool under the trees. They also seem to enjoy raiding the teenage coop when the young ones are out in the woods. They eat what they can find and keep the little ones from returning for water and food. So we have to take it out to them under the trees or evict the big girls so they can return. They are almost big enough to assert themselves, but not quite. The rooster, who looks more like Pete every day, is not at all aggressive, and does not seem to know what he is yet. But the little ones do kind of stick with him anyway. They stay in their own little flock mostly under the trees and on the state land, sometimes in a clump under a spruce. They are learning how to be herded by us, and we can now get them back home much easier. Jeanne cut off some of the low branches on the spruce so we could get through to move them back home. They are very good about going in when it starts to get dark, better even than the big ones. But the big girls are so well trained now that we just have to call them and offer a simple cup of scratch to get them all running to the coop in an hysterical pile right in front of our feet. Egg production is getting later in the day now. Sometimes the first egg doesn't drop until nine in the AM, with the last coming at 5 or later. Average between 11 and 14 a day. The coops need to be cleaned more in this hot weather, so all help is welcome on that. Earwigs have found the small coop, but the girls do eat them as soon as the door is opened. Water has to be filled fairly often during the day now also, given the heat. They are going through it fairly fast. Some new beetles appeared in the last few days, swimming in the pails of rain water. They look much like Japanese beetles, only brown. since we suspect them of being evil, we have discovered that the girls really like them, so no problem. They liked the potato beetles too, but the fence kept them from doing the job needed to keep them under control. We had to hand pick and then carry them to the coop.

Some of the girls are still looking very raggedy as they are still plucking their own feathers. We really need to get the blue kote on them soon. Help needed for this too. Jeanne and I will be gone Friday night and return Saturday afternoon, so maybe some of us can find time after we get back to take care of this together. They aren't going to like it.

Peggy for the girls