More Birds

Are you tired hearing about birds yet?  Since we were getting three day old baby ducks it was easy for us to decide to get ready to lay hens (4 months old) as opposed to newly hatched.  We still have three chickens from our first 'batch', which meant we needed to introduce the new birds to the old ones.  To help transition everyone and avoid a problem with bullying we were given advice on how to fool them all.
First the new birds were kept in their box, the original 3 girls were put into their own box.  The coop was empty.  Then, under the cover of darkness we quietly and quickly put them all back into the coop.  It felt a little bit like a secret undercover mission.  All six of us, in silence passing birds around.
Doing this meant they were all tricked into thinking that no one was new, that they were all part of the same flock.  So far so good.  The new birds are a little slow, they haven't caught on to everything yet.  Like we mean food, so to come running when we are near.  Or that the dog is going to chase them so stay away.  But generally its all going smoothly. So know we are up to 13 chickens.