Windy hill chickens - first flock(s) of my own

[kattabelly]

Apparently it's contagious.

Bigger chicks are staying outside in a bodged together roosting shelter until next week when they should have a proper coop. Getting them in there last night was fun - moving them when they're asleep and it's dark isn't really an option in mid June at almost 59° N. Going to head back up there shortly to see whether they've managed to work it out for themselves tonight.

The BRs are looking like they want to roost overnight too, now there's space, but they're outnumbered by the Shetlands who still want to heap sleep.

A raven flew overhead this morning and sent them all running for cover and it reminded of the first time the youngest chicks saw a helicopter. Some of them went and hid underneath something. Some of them... tried.

"It can't see me!"

The south isles post drone often passes quite close overhead and I've never seen any of them bothered about that, interestingly.

 

[BDutch]

Getting them in there last night was fun - moving them when they're asleep and it's dark isn't really an option in mid June at almost 59° N.

How come?
Only dark around 3am?

 

[kattabelly]

How come?
Only dark around 3am?

Never full nighttime darkness or astronomical twilight (twilight is generally split into civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight with civil being the lightest and astronomical being the darkest). We get a couple of hours where it's dark enough to need extra light for some things, but you can generally still see enough to do things like run away from the giant bald chicken who's trying to pick you up and put you in a scary box.

Sunrise this morning was 4am so it's already getting light again by 3. Sunset will be at 22:29 tonight. Last night I was out scything until almost midnight.

 

[Perris]

Make sure they don’t make a habit to roost outside. A garden chair sounds like a very unsafe place to spend the night.

FYI @BDutch https://www.orkneynativewildlife.org.uk/wildlife

 

[kattabelly]

FYI @BDutch https://www.orkneynativewildlife.org.uk/wildlife

ONWP, aka Stoat Patrol. They hate it when you call them that

(Stoats are an invasive species here so they're trying to trap them all, or at least enough to keep the population down and stop them spreading out to all the isles. It's one of those local hot topics that everyone's sick of arguing about. They're a problem for ground nesting birds and small mammals like the native Orkney vole but unlikely to be a risk to healthy adult birds, or chicks that are housed fairly securely; they were probably responsible for at least some of the losses when the semi-feral Muscovies where I used to live were raising chicks in secret hedge nests though.)

My username on here is (one spelling of) the Orkney name for a hen harrier.

 

[BDutch]

My username on here is (one spelling of) the Orkney name for a hen harrier

The name we use in the Netherlands for harrier is Kiekendief. This means chick-thief in translation.

Can stoats swim from one island to another?
How did they arrive on Orkney?

There used to be to be stoat farms in the Netherlands. But they are forbidden now bc of animal welfare issues. Corona speeded it.
They are native in the Netherlands but rare.

 

[kattabelly]

The name we use in the Netherlands for harrier is Kiekendief. This means chick-thief in translation.

Can stoats swim from one island to another?
How did they arrive on Orkney?

There used to be to be stoat farms in the Netherlands. But they are forbidden now bc of animal welfare issues. Corona speeded it.
They are native in the Netherlands but rare.

No one knows for sure but maybe as stowaways in something like a truck of hay. They could've been introduced intentionally by some idiot thinking they'd help control rabbits and rats, like happened in Aotearoa. They can swim a few km which puts a lot of the isles at risk - they've already been detected in a few places besides the mainland.

I've seen them a handful of times myself and at least half of those have been stoats casually strolling past the empty truck where stoat patrol have parked up to check a trap.

 

[kattabelly]

Grey and windy yesterday (15C with >95% humidity, 20mph gusting up to 30) so the babies didn't get much outdoors time. They probably could've coped with longer but I wasn't comfortable not being able to check on them regularly and I had other things to do. They got some greens to eat and a lump of turf to murder once they were back inside - dockens are still a favourite which is good as there's plenty to go around. All of the groups seem to be mainly going for the deep-rooted dockens and hogweed at the moment but eating smaller amounts of most other edible plants too.

Even the tiny one can get up on the higher roost now and they're all napping there during the day. The buff one often sleeps standing up

The female BR apparently expects shoulder time in the evening now which was an issue when the bigger male BR tried to join in. Some standard advice I'm quite happy to disregard because I know what I'm doing works in my situation, but I don't have enough experience with cockerels to feel confident ignoring all the people who say that letting them do that when they're young often leads to pushy and aggressive roosters. I won't encourage it from any of them but if any of the females choose to come looking for attention and cuddles, they can do it during the day when we're outside and the others are more distracted.

The Sussex and NG (six weeks old now!) completely ignored the fresh, dry hay and rearranged, more windproof shelters and spent most of the day either roosting in the wind or digging in the mud. I brought some fish and veg scraps up in the evening, and watching them go mad for it seemed to convince the teenagers to go back for more than a suspicious peck. The weather and off-lead dogs in the next field meant I didn't get a chance to try tempting the teens a bit further out of their run.

All next week is looking pretty wet, so I might measure up to see if I can use some of the panels from last year's broiler tractor to turn my polytunnel plot into a run for the babies. Or maybe even just set the tractor up for them somewhere, since it's mostly covered. I've been planning to rebuild it as a half-width tractor and try using it to put a few of them out on mowing duty in the uncultivated areas but not got round to doing anything about that yet.

 

[kattabelly]

They worked it out!

Just a short trip - I could see them getting anxious when they got all the way out into the open field and couldn't remember how to get back - but it's a start. They were pretty good about following me both ways too.

I'll try to keep them on that plot for now. They could easily fly out but hopefully blocking off the gates will be enough to keep them in while they're still nervous and getting their bearings.

Little chicks got three or four hours outside today in between downpours. Might've given in to the cuteness and let them all go to sleep in my lap and arms when we got back Worth it though, the one Shetland chick that's been really wary of me until now came and joined the others and even let me groom a bit of dried mash off her head once she'd (I think she) watched me do the same to another chick. I don't need her to be a lap chicken but I'd prefer to be able to grab them when necessary without too much fuss.

 

[kattabelly]

Don't think anyone is going to be up for much free ranging today. Met office obs station at the airport 14 miles away has the current wind at high 20s with gusts of 40mph. That's in a sheltered spot 26m above sea level, so we're probably getting a fair bit more on an exposed hillside at twice the altitude. Should start dying down early tomorrow morning.

I thought the younger chicks were taking a lot longer to feather out than the older ones, but looking back at the pics I posted there's actually not much difference. The LS are just huge now which makes it difficult to remember they were ever that small! I should post some photos of the Barred Rocks and Shetlands at 3 weeks too so I have a record here.