Yesterday evening (just after 6 pm) Janice and Kraai already roosted in thetree.
Luring with scratch and dried mealworms didn’t do the trick and they spent the night outside. Stupid. Especially Janice. She’s not even ready with her moult.
In the night I woke up from a thunderstorm. But they seem unharmed.
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This Kraai really is a little trouble maker! I'm sure she pulled Janice into this
. They both look so sure of themselves and they are both quite stunning, even molting (congrats on the pow by the way!). It's interesting to me that my chickens, even the one who like to perch on trees, have never displayed that kind of behaviour. They seem to think the coop is their safe place, contrary to what would be natural maybe as it's a one way in / one way out. I understand that for the ex-batts, they are quite heavy and not good flyers, but Théo and Chipie and Chipie's hatch have the same behaviour. I hope it doesn't change !
I also wanted to update on the question I asked some time ago about Théo eating eggshell, and whether it was due to molting. I bought some fishmeal and mix 10% of it in their food to help them through the molt with higher proteins. It turned out the fishmeal is very high in calcium (20%). Since I've been giving them the mix Théo has completely stopped eating eggshells and so have most of the hens. So I'm guessing the layer feed I was giving them probably didn't have as much calcium as announced on the bag, or for some reason they weren't able to synthesize it.
Goofy cockerel Gaston trying out one of the outdoor laying nest for himself.
Yesterday we had a stunning warm en almost windless autumn day. I worked outside on my laptop for a few hours while the chickens were enjoying the garden and beyond. Locked the chickens up in time.
The leaves of the pear tree are falling rapidly now. Hopefully this will help to want to roost inside. Otherwise they have to stay inside a lot more now the days are shortening and me getting home from work around 5 pm, 3-4 days a week. 
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