I took away the cage and let the younger hens to start “living” with the older hens. Right away the pecking problem starts. However, since the snow melts the hens have more access to the yard and more space to roam, it is not too bad. I can see they are splited into 2 groups – old and young. And whenever an old hen walks close to a younger hen, the younger one would avoid come into close contact. This does put more stress on the younger hens and I don’t know if they are going to lay eggs well.
I now turn off the light in the coop during the day and this helps the pecking somewhat because if the chick can’t see too well in the dark, it wouldn’t peck at each other too much. However, this will decrease the egg production rate because a hen normally needs 12-14 hours of light to lay consistently. Oh well, there is always give and take. But I thank the Lord that my family can have this opportunity to raise food ourselves.
I don’t give money to my kids in offering at church. I ask them to do extra work (chores don’t count because we think it is everyone’s responsibility) to get paid. For example, whoever goes out with daddy and brings water and collects the eggs get $0.10. When summer comes there will be lots of projects that I would enlist their help. I teach them to tithe their little amount of money. You see, I don’t think we should just give them “pocket money” to spend. They should earn money themselves so that they know the value of money, be thankful to God, and have a positive attitude towards hardwork. There is a sense of satsifaction after a day’s hard work.