These four new feathered additions really are some ridiculous pity pets. Just ridiculous.

Hearing a great commotion in the coop late one evening, the culprit was not four footed and furry nor sneaky and slithery. Instead it was two footed and feathered.  Just two days into her new surroundings, a rebel has developed.  Just two days and this little brown leghorn was already causing trouble. by wanting to roost in the coop.  Much to her dismay, the senior coop residents did not want her.  After much squabble and bickering and roost resettling, the tiniest of the new additions took solace on the coop door window.  What a pitiful little thing she is.  She is half the size of the next largest hen.  While not picked on by other hens, she is already an outlier.

During the day the senior flock are given the boot and the coop run door is closed allowing the little peepers free time to explore the permanent water and pellet feeder.  Of course, this is not always done without some resistance by the senior flock.  Most don’t care but Nose Nellie is not having this separation.  Not aggressive by any means, although if looks could kill in this picture…., she is however super nosy.  Every time the roosting shavings are cleaned she comes a running with her little chicken butt swinging as fast her legs will carry her.  She has to be right there under your feet and rake while cleaning the shavings.  She scratches and pecks at the old shavings and new shavings looking for any edible item. When the coop door is opened to collect eggs, she hears the door squeak and there she is waiting for any bug to fall.  Most of the time she is a lucky duck as the wood roaches love the space between the coop door and the coop.  When the door is opened, the roaches fall off its perch to ground below and immediately beaked by Nosy Nellie.  Of course on the day of this picture she is nosy for all the right reasons.  She sees food. Food she can’t have.

Two weeks and having already grown in size, the Pity Pets are looking much better and are out growing their temporary residence.  Looks, however, can be deceiving.  Having had ample time to eat both starter feed and pellet feed, I thought it would be fun to introduce them to sweet treats.  Cutting a sweet red apple into quarters, one quarter was thrown into the coop for the new flock to taste and the rest to the gullets outside the coop. Instead of attacking the apple as the rest were doing, the Pity Pets looked at the apple slice with distrust. For hours that quarter of an apple just sat there, unpecked. How pitiful.

The apple may have been untrustworthy to the residents inside the coop but to the residents locked outside, this apple sitting there in all its red beauty was just too much.  First it was Nosy Nellie.  Later in the afternoon it was the doggo. Red apples are some of her favorite sweet treats.  Pity she did not get a quarter. Guess she figured if she stared long and hard enough at the apple slice, her mind powers would bring it to her.  It didn’t by the way.