Thursday, April 22, 2010

Revena Meets Chicks

All five of the chickens were at the compost and the chicks were in the A-frame. Serene seemed to have gotten bored of the compost and wandered towards the chicks. We had put the chicks straight into the yard, and they were adorable in to them the forest of Blue Bells, but they had gone into the A-frame, probably feeling safer in an enclosed area. Anyway, I did not want Serene going in because I did not know how she would interact with the chicks. If she wanted to she could trap them in a corner and peck at them. I would have let her come close if the chicks were in the yard because then they could have run away if they wanted to, but since they were inside I shooed Serene away. A couple minutes later Revena came over. I figured she is a gentle chicken and she never pecks hard so I decided to let her in. Revena explored the place and did not really notice the chicks. Soon she noticed them but just continued to walk around. She got to the food and began to eat, I moved her away from the food but she just came back and continued to eat.As my last choice I gently pushed her out of the A-frame, closed it up and went inside because I had to help my mom. Suddenly, all five chickens became very interested in the chicks and they all gathered around their coop. I wished I could have stayed out and let them in one at a time, but I had to go in. At least Revena had met the chicks!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Blue Bells

The buds are coming up and we don't want the chickens to eat them. We couldn't just not let them out, so I did my best to block of the heavily budded areas with sleds, chairs and blueberry netting. It kind of worked, but the chickens still got to them. In the end we decided to just stay out with them, and make sure they did not eat the buds. As the buds blossomed into flowers and bluebells covered the grass, we noticed that the chickens were not eating the flowers now that they were big. We stopped watching them all the time and they had the yard back.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Outside for an Afternoon

One warm sunny day when the chicks were about 4 and a half weeks old, we brought the chicks outside. We had brought them outside before, but this time we put their house next to the aviary so the chickens could see the chicks. We left them out for the whole afternoon, and hopefully they really noticed each other. Another day we brought them outside and put them in our A-frame coop and let the chickens out into the yard, so they could be close but no bother each other.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Chicks growing up

When the chicks were 3 and a half weeks old we went away for Passover. We were away for a week and when we got back I thought they were huge. My dad built a little coop and put wood shavings in instead of a cardboard box and a towel.