I did it! They did it! Today!
I had the happiest 9 chickens and 2 ducks in the entire universe today. Granted, they didn't get out of my back yard (which is pretty big) onto the rest of the acre property on which I live (in the second, back house).
I PLANNED to let them out whilst I was weeding. Really need to weed, as the grass is THIS high and I can't quite get to last year's raised garden beds to work on 'em. A blackberry bush is taking over one corner of the yard. A large blackberry bush.
The flock mostly stayed near me. I didn't pull a single weed, either stood around admiring their wanderings (and taking pictures) or sitting in a plastic chair near the coop to watch. I sit in one of those IN the run, usually, so they were quite used to me doing that. There are NO bugs left in the grass - which is now stamped down - underneath and around that chair. There's quite a bit of grass in their crops tonight, too.
I locked my two dogs in the house for the first several hours of Free Range activity. (One of my dachshunds is a chicken killer.) The chickens and ducks ranged together, generally moving into any location in the yard where I went. After a while, they broke off into little groups, going in different directions, but still moving back towards me on a regular basis.
The closest neighbor apologized, but he had to mow his extensive back yard; he does this every weekend. I thought it was nice that he even said anything about it after he noticed they were out of the run by the back fence between our yards. They scattered when he first turned the mower on, but he was able to make several passes quite close to the fence without them being bothered by it at all. (Like I said, he mows every weekend, so they must have realized, oh, it's that big noise thing again, and it never "gets" us, so all is okay.)
This is Matilda just outside the gate to the run.
This is Buffy making the turn at the corner of the coop outside the run.
This is Lacy, enjoying the outing.
Carl was wonderful! He found goodies for them, called them to come get special bugs or a worm, and he tried to keep them from getting too far away from me.
Here are a few of them out and about:
They were FASCINATED by the grassy area under and behind the bench.
They discovered another section of the yard.
And then the ducks realized that was a POND on the other side of the retaining wall!
I only had to carry two birds back into the run when it was time for me to let the dogs out. Matilda tends to hang out with the Cayuga ducks (or maybe the ducks tend to hang out with her) but she and they got into the raised garden beds on the opposite side of the run and got "lost." I picked up Matilda, came back for the ducks and only had to carry one of 'em; the other waddled behind to follow us into the run.
All in all, it was a wonderful day. We're going to repeat it tomorrow. However, I WILL actually do some weeding. I hope to have some fluffy helpers.
I had the happiest 9 chickens and 2 ducks in the entire universe today. Granted, they didn't get out of my back yard (which is pretty big) onto the rest of the acre property on which I live (in the second, back house).
I PLANNED to let them out whilst I was weeding. Really need to weed, as the grass is THIS high and I can't quite get to last year's raised garden beds to work on 'em. A blackberry bush is taking over one corner of the yard. A large blackberry bush.
The flock mostly stayed near me. I didn't pull a single weed, either stood around admiring their wanderings (and taking pictures) or sitting in a plastic chair near the coop to watch. I sit in one of those IN the run, usually, so they were quite used to me doing that. There are NO bugs left in the grass - which is now stamped down - underneath and around that chair. There's quite a bit of grass in their crops tonight, too.
I locked my two dogs in the house for the first several hours of Free Range activity. (One of my dachshunds is a chicken killer.) The chickens and ducks ranged together, generally moving into any location in the yard where I went. After a while, they broke off into little groups, going in different directions, but still moving back towards me on a regular basis.
The closest neighbor apologized, but he had to mow his extensive back yard; he does this every weekend. I thought it was nice that he even said anything about it after he noticed they were out of the run by the back fence between our yards. They scattered when he first turned the mower on, but he was able to make several passes quite close to the fence without them being bothered by it at all. (Like I said, he mows every weekend, so they must have realized, oh, it's that big noise thing again, and it never "gets" us, so all is okay.)
This is Matilda just outside the gate to the run.
This is Buffy making the turn at the corner of the coop outside the run.
This is Lacy, enjoying the outing.
Carl was wonderful! He found goodies for them, called them to come get special bugs or a worm, and he tried to keep them from getting too far away from me.
Here are a few of them out and about:
They were FASCINATED by the grassy area under and behind the bench.
They discovered another section of the yard.
And then the ducks realized that was a POND on the other side of the retaining wall!
I only had to carry two birds back into the run when it was time for me to let the dogs out. Matilda tends to hang out with the Cayuga ducks (or maybe the ducks tend to hang out with her) but she and they got into the raised garden beds on the opposite side of the run and got "lost." I picked up Matilda, came back for the ducks and only had to carry one of 'em; the other waddled behind to follow us into the run.
All in all, it was a wonderful day. We're going to repeat it tomorrow. However, I WILL actually do some weeding. I hope to have some fluffy helpers.
