New lessons

The chicks are now 10 weeks old. Daniel and Sarah have been learning the importance of keeping fresh cool water available for the chicks due to the warm weather. We have now started them on the grower/finisher and they all seem to be doing well. We must have done a good job of bonding with them because everytime we go out there they all run to the fence to see us. Sometimes when I go in with them there are always a couple of them that want to jump up to sit on my arm or shoulder. It is funny to watch them when we first let them out in the mornings. They run and jump and fly, doing the morning stretching exercises. Over all they seem very happy.
Paul built them a new roost but we left the others in there as well. I love the new one because it is hinged and can be lifted and hooked when I need to clean. He is now working on the nesting boxes. The thing is, while they love to roost during the day, they did not so much at night. They would all cuddle in the corner of the house to sleep. There were a couple of things wrong with that. Besides the fact that it is not the natural way of doing things, they would scratch all the litter out of the corner and lay directly on the wood. The corner would get pretty dirty and that is not healthy. The other problem is that the way they would get in such a tight bundle, someone was bound to get suffocated or hurt. So we took on the task of teaching them to roost at night.

At first we put a couple of them on the roost and when we put the light out they cried to each other until the two found their way back to the pile. Then we started trying to show them all to the roosts but would only end up with about four that would stay. Now when we put them all on the roost they stay. When we first go in to the house there is gradually a greater number of them already on the roost. It takes a bit of time but eventually they will all learn to just go to the roost at bedtime. It is hilarious to watch them choose their places. It is like first grade, they have to sit next to their best friends. If you put them in the wrong place they will get down and go find where they want to be. If someone is already in their spot they will fly up and sit on top of her until she falls. Chickens are nuts!

When I shut the chick door so I can clean inside the house, they get a bit upset with me. They know it is their house and they should be able to come in. In the end they seem to appreciate the clean, fresh new litter and get over being mad pretty quickly.

While the girls like to chase a butterfly or really anything that flies, this guy they did not go near. I think they were a bit disturbed by him because he was HUGE. He is a Royal Moth and he is about four inches long. He sat there on the side of the pen for a couple of hours and the whole time the girls stayed away from that part of the coop. He wouldn't hurt them but I guess they were not going to risk it.