Big Girls

The chicks are getting wing feathers. This has made them believe they are all grown up and can fly. What they actually do is leap at one another. They are giving it all they have in trying to get on top of the waterer, it is not quite working yet.

Because they are growing a bit and becoming more active, we have seperated them into two tubs. One tub has the smaller birds with a couple of the bigger ones to ensure they are getting enough time at the feeder. They seem to be adjusting to the seperation just fine.

We had been using paper towels as the traction over the newspaper but we have had to stop. The girls were tearing little bits off and then being chased down by all the others. At the moment we are just using the newspaper and with as much food as they scatter, traction does not seem to be a problem but we will be moving on to the pine shavings soon. Having two tubs it will be good to only have to clean them every couple of days instead of every day.

These girls are fun to watch and are really forming personalities. Since they are trying so hard to get higher we thought it would be fun to introduce roosts of a sort. We took small branches and leaned them up across the tub so that there is an end on the ground and then it gets higher. They were not happy about the change in environment and were a bit scared of the sticks. Now they are ok with them being there but have yet to get on them by themselves.