Phew--long day!
After starting to build a new enclosure for my Guinea fowl and going to visit my aunt (which took longer than I was promised, but it was alright), I finally got the chance to take the babies outside for the first time! They were pretty calm as I moved them to the box I used for transport, but kind of got worried when the lid went on. Fancy peeked out of the handle hole to see what was up and I reassured her, but it didn't help. There were complaints the whole walk from the brooder to the outside pen, and when I finally got them set up and took the lid off the box, they didn't know what to think.
SWSSU took a peek at the big, outside world.
After being removed from the box, Frou-frou and Fancy decided that they didn't like the feeling of grass on their feet.
Pip met Flicker, a red sexlink who followed me out to the chicky-pen because she assumed the box was full of treats for her.
Afterward, she, too, decided the ground was too unsafe to be on.
Iddy Biddy took the first few tastes of grass.
Meanwhile, Fancy had decided it was safe to touch the ground, but Frou-frou felt the need to separate herself from it further, so she scrambled her way up my leg...
...And onto my lap, where she sat for a long while.
As Frou-frou settled in as far away from the grass as she could get, Fancy took her first taste of it.
The little ones finally discovered the waterer at that corner of the pen.
And Pip caught the first bug--here she is after gulping it down:
I decided at some point to get Frou-frou used to grass, and so I put her on the edge of the cardboard I was sitting on. It unnerved her being that close to the grass.
Eventually, though, Fancy encouraged her off the cardboard...
...And Iddy Biddy showed her how to peck at the grass.
In the end, Frou-frou never became as comfortable as the others with the grass.
I have never had a chick so opposed to the idea of being outside, and I never expected Frou-frou to be the scaredy-bird of the crowd! Too bad our dogs aren't chicken-safe or we might have had a house chicken on our hands!
