When I went with my fifteen year old son to see the Brahma chickens, I didn’t take a crate to bring them back in, I didn’t have a plan for where to put them – I just went to look at them with the hope that would give me clarity about if I should get them or not.

I really enjoyed meeting the people selling the chickens and we chatted for almost an hour. I told them from the outset that I was only going to look at them and would go home and think about it because I didn’t want them to feel disappointed if I didn’t buy them on the spot.

When I spotted a chicken travel crate at the end of our conversation and they said I could use it, I spontaneously decided to bring the chickens home with us – one male and two females. I figured I’d put them in with our other chickens where there’s plenty of room and since they’re bigger than our chickens, none of the other chickens would bother them.

My son carried the crate into the coop, set it on the ground and opened it. We both stood there to watch what happened. The rooster hopped out and I laughingly said to my son that it looked like King Kong swaggering in and assessing the area. I didn’t realize how much bigger they were until they were next to my other chickens.

Then the females hopped out, and the three new chickens went to one side of the coop while my flock went to the other side. They all watched each other.

I observed that my alpha Plymouth Rock rooster was very alert. I figured they’d quickly establish the pecking order and one of them would agree to let the other be the boss of the coop. I had fifteen roosters together and it was pretty peaceful – they all accepted the authority of the head rooster. The beta roosters had minor squabbles between one another in the coop and when they were free ranging sometimes they would get a little more feisty asserting themselves once they were out of the clear dominion of the head rooster. But that’s it.

That’s not what happened this time.

They faced each other and lowered their heads, raising their hackles.

Then Plymouth flew at Brahma. I was concerned that being smaller he might get hurt and watched carefully so we could step in if necessary. It turned out that he was the better fighter, smaller and more agile.

They flew at one another again and again and after a few minutes it wasn’t subsiding. Brahma was panting heavily, blood was starting to flow from them both and I was afraid neither of them was going to give in so I had my son quickly separate them.

It was clear that all my mental machinations about if I should keep them separate or together had been unnecessary. There was no possibility of keeping them together. My son put the new chickens in our gated back yard as a temporary holding spot and gently washed off Brahma’s injuries while I gave them food and water. The roosters had pecked one another on their combs, which is where the bleeding was from, but because my son stepped in as quickly as he did, the injuries were minor.

I created a shady area for them, put a nesting box under a private corner and since I had to leave for the rest of the day, made a temporary roost for them for the night by placing our pool ladder under a covered area of the shed so they would feel protected. I assumed that being the big and heavy birds they were, they wouldn’t be able to fly over the six foot fence – according to what I read, they don’t fly higher than 3 – 4 feet.

I came back hours later with my daughter from her school party, and I saw a large shape sitting on top of our grill opposite the entrance to our yard. It was Brahma. The gate to the backyard was still closed and the only way out was over. So much for being too heavy to fly. And the hens were nowhere in sight.

My extensive search by flashlight didn’t turn up anything, but fortunately when my teens got home a couple of hours later, they searched again and this time found them in a corner that I overlooked. I felt terrible to have ‘lost’ them on their first day with us and was so relieved when they were found. (Not to mention it would have been an financial loss since I paid 500 shekels for the three of them.)

My husband is especially enjoying these chickens and their very calm and gentle energy. He said they’re very ‘zen’ chickens.

While the backyard is working for right now (we put them in a large cage in our locked shed at night so they’re completely secure), now we need to build another coop for them…another day, another project!

Avivah