The Chicken Shuffle and BIRTHDAYS!

We have had the new Girls for 5 weeks now.  The first night we waited for everyone to get sleepy (the old Girls and Hell Boy in the hen house and the new Girls in a makeshift chicken tractor - i.e., dog crate, nesting boxes, tarp covering, and food and water) and then moved the new ones in with the old ones.  Seemed to work well.
And then we tried it the next night.  Not good...at all.  Thelma, the Australorp and top hen, decided to establish a pecking order and decided Alice, the Barred Rock, was going down.  Alice got pretty beat up.  The back of her head and one of her eyes were pretty bad and she had to be quarantined in our bathroom in a recycling bin with a lid for a week.  The first few days she was doctored twice a day and stayed in the bin. After a few days, we started putting her out in the chicken hoop in the yard...a circle of chicken wire with a lid...for fresh air and safe interaction with the rest of the flock.  After a week, she was able to go back in the makeshift chicken tractor with the other new girls.  As of today, the 6 birds have been ranging together for a month.  As of Sunday night, they were cooped separately.  Sunday night we waited until everyone was good and sleepy and then moved the new ones into the hen house.  We (The HusMan) got up super early and opened the chicken yard door on Monday morning so that there was an escape route if the pecking started again.  So far, so good.  The Chicken Shuffle has been working well for the last 3 nights and we are going to continue until this weekend.

The Chicken Shuffle goes like this...
You take a chicken out. You put a chicken in. You put the chicken on the roost and then they squawk about. You did the chicken shuffle and they flap themselves around. That's what it's all about. Two more times!

As if that isn't enough, Big Son turned 18 on the 14th and the Wee Teen is 14 today!  Where has the time gone?!  

Big Son and his Orange Mandarin Cake for his 18th birthday on January 14

Wee Teen eating a ham and white cheddar empanada for her birthday lunch on January 23

I will post pictures in the next post for Wordless Wednesday and then I will be mostly caught up.  I'll also take us back in time to see Christmas pictures.