The Guard Chicken

This last week, we introduced the new birds into the old flock, and it's been interesting.  If this was a musical, both groups would be snapping their fingers as they circle each other.   We have the three barred rocks (the old girls), two golden sex links (the golden girls) and two sebrights.  The old girls have their routine, their places, and become discomfited if the other four approach them en masse.    The golden girls are also relatively calm, but flee if approached by one or more of the old girls.  The sebrights are flighty and have a tendency to be stepped on by all of the other birds.  Not on purpose, it's just that they're so little.

The main problem is the guard chicken, who earned her name because she sits just inside the doorway of the coop every night.  She patrols the yard, making sure no one comes near where the other two are camped out, or near the food and water, but her main butt-headedness is saved for when any of the other birds want to enter the coop at night.  The two old girls will go in, and the guard chicken will take up her post.  The silver sebright has managed to make it inside, on occasion, and the current theory is that she is okay, because she is colored similarly to the old girls.  But in order to get everyone settled for the night, the guard bird gets hauled inside the coop, placed on the perch until the others scramble in, and then she's restored to her regular post.  For the first two or three nights, the squabbling that went on inside the coop was entertaining as everyone jockeyed for position, and birds squawked indignantly as they were shoved off the roost.  But enough is enough, and by the fourth night, everyone was shoved into the coop, the light was turned off, and the door shut.  Nary a peep was heard after that.

I hope they get it sorted out soon, because they sound and act very much like a group of six year olds, and I want to order them to separate corners until they behave.