Martaals
Songster
Hello!
As this is my first experience with chickens I like to document the journey of meeting these lovely representatives of the chicken species:
Kali, Aart and Greta.
DAY 1
After setting up a little coop, we went to pick them up from a guy who calls himself "the chicken specialist".
The travel was nothing glamorous, just a 25 min car ride in a carton box with wood snippers. They were pretty chill.
I did discover that chickens are happy to eat each others poop as a car snack
As soon as we came home we put them in the coop and they seemed to enjoy it.
Just after dark there was full panic, so we googled "do chickens see in the dark" to which the answer seemed to be no, so we put them all into the roost and shut the door. Then we googled "how to teach your chickens to go to bed" and made a plan for the coming days.
DAY 2
From the left: Kali fearlessly claimed the food tray, and already stood out as pretty bossy. Greta was the first to walk up and down the ladder, she is our little explorer. Aart seems to be a little shy and careful, but she is also the calmest. But suddenly she surprises everyone, like here when she jumped on top of the waterbucket.
This evening the chickens all walked into the roost when the sun went down, so we didnæt really have to teach them anything, but we closed the door for them to keep the peace and make good routines.
DAY 3
Chickens are happy to come out in the morning, they now do everything together - eating, drinking, napping.
The pecking order seems to have settled as 1 Kali, 2 Greta and 3 Aart. We add deworming to the water, as recommended by "the chicken specialist".
They walk themselves to bed, we still close the roost off at night to build the right routine.
DAY 4
I found my first intestal lining poops and freaked out a littlebit. For anyone interested in pictures and analysis, there is a seperate thread for that: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/poop-analysis.1346024/
Didn't really take photos, the weather was not very nice. Aart looked a little mellow, so got a bit worried there...
DAY 5
No more intestinal lining laying around, and Aart was looking a little merrier. Weather was still typical dutch wet and windy.
DAY 6
No more poop problems as far as I can tell and chickens are in a great mood. Greta even took the liberty of a little adventure. She pretended to be interested in mealworms, but then made a loud PackPAAAA, stepped on my head and flew out. Both my cats got very interested by this. She wasn't very hard to catch after she landed, but good to know she can fly high enough to reach a tree.
From the left: Selfie with Greta and Escher, one of the cats. Kali getting cuddles from Kim. Girls having a nap and cleaning up.
Greta was also really the cutest today, so I made some closeups from her falling asleep in my lap
Kali: Did you just yawn in my face?
As this is my first experience with chickens I like to document the journey of meeting these lovely representatives of the chicken species:
Kali, Aart and Greta.
DAY 1
After setting up a little coop, we went to pick them up from a guy who calls himself "the chicken specialist".
The travel was nothing glamorous, just a 25 min car ride in a carton box with wood snippers. They were pretty chill.
I did discover that chickens are happy to eat each others poop as a car snack
As soon as we came home we put them in the coop and they seemed to enjoy it.
Just after dark there was full panic, so we googled "do chickens see in the dark" to which the answer seemed to be no, so we put them all into the roost and shut the door. Then we googled "how to teach your chickens to go to bed" and made a plan for the coming days.
DAY 2
From the left: Kali fearlessly claimed the food tray, and already stood out as pretty bossy. Greta was the first to walk up and down the ladder, she is our little explorer. Aart seems to be a little shy and careful, but she is also the calmest. But suddenly she surprises everyone, like here when she jumped on top of the waterbucket.
This evening the chickens all walked into the roost when the sun went down, so we didnæt really have to teach them anything, but we closed the door for them to keep the peace and make good routines.
DAY 3
Chickens are happy to come out in the morning, they now do everything together - eating, drinking, napping.
The pecking order seems to have settled as 1 Kali, 2 Greta and 3 Aart. We add deworming to the water, as recommended by "the chicken specialist".
They walk themselves to bed, we still close the roost off at night to build the right routine.
DAY 4
I found my first intestal lining poops and freaked out a littlebit. For anyone interested in pictures and analysis, there is a seperate thread for that: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/poop-analysis.1346024/
Didn't really take photos, the weather was not very nice. Aart looked a little mellow, so got a bit worried there...
DAY 5
No more intestinal lining laying around, and Aart was looking a little merrier. Weather was still typical dutch wet and windy.
DAY 6
No more poop problems as far as I can tell and chickens are in a great mood. Greta even took the liberty of a little adventure. She pretended to be interested in mealworms, but then made a loud PackPAAAA, stepped on my head and flew out. Both my cats got very interested by this. She wasn't very hard to catch after she landed, but good to know she can fly high enough to reach a tree.
From the left: Selfie with Greta and Escher, one of the cats. Kali getting cuddles from Kim. Girls having a nap and cleaning up.
Greta was also really the cutest today, so I made some closeups from her falling asleep in my lap
Kali: Did you just yawn in my face?
