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

[kattabelly]

Teens had five hours in the morning and evening yesterday when they could have left the run, although they chose to stay in for a lot of that time..Babies were out all day again. (I hate referring to them like human children but it's just easy shorthand.) Kept the teens shut in this morning and opened the other door instead so they could mix with the younger birds and it went fairly well.

I'd not heard it before but this guy crows now! The numpty behind him got stuck on the other side of the fence and forgot where the door is - second time he's done that - and he was doing his best to call eejit back to join the others, I think.

 

[kattabelly]

Bit rainy but hopefully clearing up later. Two hours out for the teens this morning. They found a load of leatherjackets under a heap of rotting cut-down nettles, so not much ranging happened. Holcus lanatus / soft meadowgrass seems to be today's preferred grass flowers, although they're browsing on a bit of everything. The pullet found a white slater and kept going back to it before realising that nope, still one of those yucky woodlice they don't like. She's starting to come out of her shell now and surprisingly, still seems to be doing fine and not getting pestered by any of the cockerels. Maybe I'm going to end up with a flock of confirmed bachelors...

Someone here who doesn't have an incubator atm wants me to hatch some RIR chicks for him, so I have hatching eggs arriving tomorrow and if that goes ok I'll get to enjoy new baby chicks for a day or two without having to worry about where I'm going to put yet more chickens.

 

[kattabelly]

Few more hours out for the teens last night in the evening sunshine. I've noticed they won't usually go out if I just walk in and leave the run door open behind me - they need to be "invited". Mr Fancy-Pants is now the only one of the teens who hasn't managed to get stuck the wrong side of an open door I don't know for sure but suspect they didn't have a huge amount of room to explore in different directions, or exposure to outdoors and new things, before they came here at (iirc) ~7 weeks old. Had a look over the pullet while I was giving her a lift home and she was really calm, didn't even notice an elevated heart rate when I picked her up although she gave me the most hilarious side-eye at first. She's so downy!

Couple of hours this morning, then shut them back in so I could open up the pop door between runs just enough for the chicks to come through but escape back to their own space if they need to.

 

[kattabelly]

Oh god they've started crowing at the baby rats.

Yes we all know they're there! Howsabout put on your big boy pants and do something useful like eating them?!

VID_20250627_122917~2.mp4

• kattabelly
• Today at 8:24 AM

(Not sure if folk can see that or I need to play about with some settings?)

 

[BDutch]

View media item 7971220(Not sure if folk can see that or I need to play about with some settings?)

 

[kattabelly]

View attachment 4159888

Thanks, should be fixed now?

 

[kattabelly]

While I remember - Shetlands and Barred Rocks at around 23 days old.

Shetlands are definitely slower feathering than the Sussex but not by that much, and they've grown in a lot more in the few days since these were taken.

Rocks are quite a bit slower but they're such big lumps it barely matters - they're generally the last to come in from the wind and rain, and the first back out.