Whimsy, the Whimsical ... Retirement Home?

L.E. added three pullets to her flock a month or so ago. The current hens are getting up there, almost to hen menopause, so she needed to bring in layers that would take over when the older ladies finally quit laying.

Meet Hi-ho Silver, Andarna*, and Princess Buttercup
Aug 15, 2025

Mary Kathryn, our oldest hen at almost 8 years old, wasn't having it, and immediately went after them. She was placed in time-out for a little bit that day, then allowed back in with the rest of the ladies.

As the pullets have grown, though, they've not forgotten her hostile welcome and she's slipped to the bottom of the pecking order. For the past few weeks L.E. has been taking her out each morning and putting her in her private suite, the chicken tractor by the strawberry/mint patch. Mary Kathryn has not complained about this one bit. She's always been a bit spoiled.

Her history is amazing.

She started her life with my niece, Autobot, who tamed her, and carried her around like a pet. When Autobot enlisted, she needed a good place for Mary Kathryn. At that point in time, Beel had become a crazy chicken lady (or, as he preferred, a chicken tender), so Mary Kathryn made the move up to the lodge with his girls. 

While at the lodge, she fought off and survived two hawk attacks. During a coyote attack, she was smart enough to fly up into a tree, and lived to tell the tale. When Mom and Beel evacuated during a big fire a few years ago, the flock came down to live with L.E.'s until they got the all clear to go home.

Then came the bobcat slaughter. Beel found Mary Kathryn huddled in the coop, surrounded by the evidence of the attack. By that time, Beel's heart had been broken enough by losing hens, and he asked L.E. if the old girl could retire down at our place. L.E., being the kind-hearted woman she is couldn't turn him down.

Her introduction to the existing flock didn't go well. They ganged up on her, and she was just too traumatized to fight back. Instead, she became L.E.'s best friend. She would walk up to L.E. and ask to be held and carried around, just like Autobot used to do when she was just a little chicken nugget. She was the only hen allowed to free range. But free ranging meant that she just followed L.E. around the yard.

Eventually, she managed to integrate, and remember she was a hen. For the past three years, she's done really well. Until the new pullets came and the drama started.

L.E. is leaving to visit her kids and grandkids in a few days, and so we were trying to figure out what to do with Mary Kathryn. I leave for work long before the hens wake up, and I didn't want to go pick her up out of her nesting box in the middle of (her) night. We discussed moving her private suite into the "cat barn", where the feral cats used to live, but as we were standing outside talking, I was looking at Whimsy. I asked L.E., "why don't we just move the chicken tractor into Whimsy?". Then I did a mental facepalm. Why move the chicken tractor into Whimsy, when I could just shut the bottom of the Dutch door and let her have the run of the place?

So, that's what we did. L.E. made her a nesting box out of a cat carrier, I moved out anything I didn't want chicken shit on, and we moved her in.

Mary Kathryn's new retirement home.

She dove right into the food, so we suspect the other
had been keeping her away from it.

Checking out her new digs.

She's kind of hard to see in the shadow,
but she was pretty happy in there.

By living in Whimsy, she's close enough to hear the other hens, and better protected from predators than she would have been in the dark cat barn at the edge of the property. She has Diana, the pomegranate, and a couple of potted plants to keep her company and give her something to scratch.

While Whimsy's not fully insulated, and her interior walls aren't complete, it should be warm enough in her nesting box during the cold nights. Diana is getting a frame covered in heavy duty plastic, so I'll be sure to leave space for Mary Kathryn to get in if she wants as well.

I can't tell you how much it tickles me to have Whimsy used in this way, and I hope Mary Kathryn loves living in there.

*Yesterday, Andarna went cock-a-doodle-doo, so now he's Tairn.