Chicken in the woods (and more woods)

[lightm]

That is a comfy roost! She is making me sleepy... Good night.

 

[rolohman]

Good night to you all! Actually, I can’t sleep because my fourteen-year-old is singing in the room beneath me. I can’t tell him to go to bed, because then he’d know I can hear him. The fact that he’s been singing lately is the greatest thing- big change from last year in middle school. But I’m TIRED!!

 

[chrissynemetz]

Evidence:

View attachment 3661316

Hopefully they'll all start roosting at night now that one has gotten brave enough to try

 

[rolohman]

Here’s a picture of my barley tower. I’m replacing my original containers with the black take out trays so they will all match. Not doing the thing with holes in the bottom, etc. Just spritzing them with water in the morning and evening and that seems to work on this small scale.

Sorry about the toilet pic this early in the morning!

 

[rolohman]

I really enjoy my coop cam, even though it’s so dark in there that it’s pretty much always black/white imagery.

Mostly I get picks of them roosting during the day and an occasional cute photo of Dolly or Cloud doing a selfie:


However, today I saw this as well:



That’s one of the pigeons: Cookies and cream. She and Dust Bunny apparently wanted a little adventure and there are shots of them exploring the chicken coop for almost two hours today. Even when the chickens came inside to roost, they didn’t fly the coop, and just kind of stayed away from the bigger birds.

I’ve seen the chickens chase the pigeons once in a while when they are outside on the ground. When they are bigger they’ll definitely be able to hurt them badly. I guess we will see how this develops. The chicken part of the coop and the pigeon part are only separated by hardware cloth, so they can see each other well. Maybe that is helping them tolerate each other.

 

[rolohman]

More adventures - the two kids and a friend got lost after dark in the woods behind our house (about half a mile wide, 10+ miles in the other directions) but I found them about a quarter mile away in the midst of a huge patch of brambles. There were tears and hugs. Good side is that they now have an appreciation for how hard it can be to find a trail in the fall, even if you DO have a flashlight. Eldest kid had a cell phone but no coverage, so I showed him how he can still find his location with google maps in the future. If he's ever in that position again he will start a strava track so he can follow it back. I do want to find some orienteering groups with material aimed at young teens, though. We did a little of that in England and it was fantastic. I'm a geologist, so good with maps, and a little horrified with the dependence on modern technology.

Chickens no longer peck suspiciously at their sprouted barley treats - they are very excited about it each day. Pigeons spent almost all day INSIDE the hen house yesterday, including the nesting boxes. Maybe we will just take down the barrier between the two. I'd need to find a way to keep the chickens from eating the pigeon food, though. It's basically scratch, so they'd love it.

 

[TwoCrows]

More adventures - the two kids and a friend got lost after dark in the woods behind our house (about half a mile wide, 10+ miles in the other directions) but I found them about a quarter mile away in the midst of a huge patch of brambles. There were tears and hugs. Good side is that they now have an appreciation for how hard it can be to find a trail in the fall, even if you DO have a flashlight. Eldest kid had a cell phone but no coverage, so I showed him how he can still find his location with google maps in the future. If he's ever in that position again he will start a strava track so he can follow it back. I do want to find some orienteering groups with material aimed at young teens, though. We did a little of that in England and it was fantastic. I'm a geologist, so good with maps, and a little horrified with the dependence on modern technology.

Chickens no longer peck suspiciously at their sprouted barley treats - they are very excited about it each day. Pigeons spent almost all day INSIDE the hen house yesterday, including the nesting boxes. Maybe we will just take down the barrier between the two. I'd need to find a way to keep the chickens from eating the pigeon food, though. It's basically scratch, so they'd love it.

Wow, glad you were able to find the kids!!

 

[rolohman]

Thanks! I had a whistle (they'd left theirs at home and will NEVER do that again) and it was such a relief when I heard their little high voices call out in response. They were only gone half an hour total, so this may have been the perfect mix of "scare them into being more careful" without having any actual danger. I was mostly worried someone had tripped and hurt their leg, and I'm glad they were smart enough to stay together and not panic.

I couldn't find the trail either on the way back (they'd gotten quite far off it) so they got to see how to find which way was north (moss on the trees, although that doesn't always work) and we just headed in the direction that led towards the houses, not worrying about the lack of trail. Helped that I knew there weren't any gorges or other things to worry about.

 

[TwoCrows]

Thanks! I had a whistle (they'd left theirs at home and will NEVER do that again) and it was such a relief when I heard their little high voices call out in response. They were only gone half an hour total, so this may have been the perfect mix of "scare them into being more careful" without having any actual danger. I was mostly worried someone had tripped and hurt their leg, and I'm glad they were smart enough to stay together and not panic.

I couldn't find the trail either on the way back (they'd gotten quite far off it) so they got to see how to find which way was north (moss on the trees, although that doesn't always work) and we just headed in the direction that led towards the houses, not worrying about the lack of trail. Helped that I knew there weren't any gorges or other things to worry about.

Scary stuff, but it sounds like you had it all under control!

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Here’s a picture of my barley tower. I’m replacing my original containers with the black take out trays so they will all match. Not doing the thing with holes in the bottom, etc. Just spritzing them with water in the morning and evening and that seems to work on this small scale.

Sorry about the toilet pic this early in the morning!View attachment 3661443

I do this but at a smaller scale and I feed the hens when the sprouting just starts. They go NuTS for the wheat grass sprouts!