Best. Day. Ever. Thank you for sharing.November 10, 2021 was a Big Day
Yesterday was something fun here at FBA. To start the weather was magnificent. Blue skies and 65 degrees. With the addition of the canopy and my ability to do a lot of work from the deck, I opened the doors in the morning and let EVERYONE out to free range ALL DAY. I did take a calculated risk in that I did have to leave leave them unsupervised forup to an hour at a time throughout the day. However, I felt that it was a much smaller risk than prior to the canopy.
Additionally the pool is now covered and there is no water on top of the cover so if the slid in they could easily walk out.
The vast majority of the free range area which the littles are using is now covered in some fashion. The song birds are around and will provide a warning of some kind and of course, they are now generally in the same area as the bigs who will definitely alarm if something is spotted. There have been no hawk sightings for days so whichever hawk was stalking them seems to have moved on to other hunting grounds.
So i decided to give them some freedom and take a small risk. The reward was well worth it.
What did I see?
First I love the way they spend their day. They come out, free range until they are full and then head back to the coop to roost and preen. Their time outside the coop is full of purpose and resting time is spent in the safest place they know. I believe this is because none of the big hens outside of Phyllis ever goes in their coop, hence super safety. They don't have to worry about Sansa flushing them because she thinks it is funny.
This has the effect of limiting their exposure to any arial predator.
Legertha watched with great interest as the rest of the tribe came to the deck for a snack around lunch time. They did not venture over to the deck, but the snack taking was noted.
How far did they range?
The made it all the way around underneath the butterfly bushes almost to the patio. All of that is under cover. On the other side they made it to Pool Shed which did require a sojourn across some open space but not a lot of open space.
They seemed to really enjoy themselves and whenever I would come near them they would gather around my feet and follow me around. Just like Phyllis.
All in all it was a success and we are trying it out again today as the weather is holding for us one more day. It is supposed to rain very badly tomorrow with high winds so I will likely leave them in Friday and Saturday as I will be away from home most of the day.
