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

[kattabelly]

Four eggs from Bertha, Lady Muck, one of the Sussexes and one that I'm guessing was wifey recalibrating the print settings but not 100% certain. Most went to roost around sunset+29.

Neither of the Hylines - who ARE laying - will dare set foot in there at night but Nora has moved in to the big girls' coop despite not laying yet, afaik. Ignoring her supposed lack of status and roosting next to Big Bertha the Murderbird fits with what I've seen of her personality so far

Couldn't get a photo because my phone died but the new girls came out into the back field today! Rognvald & co were there too and that was fine but they went back to the plot (not over the wall! ) when the older chickens started coming out. They're getting more confident and spending more time with them inside the plot and run though.

Before my battery died I was trying to get some nice shots of little chickens chickening around naturally in nature

 

[kattabelly]

I was late going up to check on them and top up food today (they did have some, they weren't starving) and wifey came and met me down at the polytunnel. Hope she hadn't been roaming around eating people's veg for too long and isn't going to make a habit of that.

Managed to get a few pictures of the new girls + others out in the field.

Eggs from Bertha and both Sussexes. No idea what time the sensible chickens went to roost - I was busy dealing with this nonsense

 

[cavemanrich]

Quick question.;
Do your chickens respect and observe that Rock Fence Divider?
I know its nothing for them to fly over.

 

[kattabelly]

Quick question.;
Do your chickens respect and observe that Rock Fence Divider?
I know its nothing for them to fly over.

They've been surprisingly good about staying inside fences, so far. I sometimes take them out to other areas when I'm around to keep an eye on them (off-lead dogs are potentially a risk but I'm mostly worried about them eating other people's vegetables) but they don't seem to be that bothered about going off exploring or even back to familiar spots on their own. I've found one or two of them outside the fence a few times and they usually seemed a bit uncertain and more than happy to follow me back!

I'm hoping that by fencing off different areas in rotation to allow them to recover, they'll always have decent forage within the area they have unrestricted access to and won't ever be forced to go looking elsewhere because they've grazed all the space inside their fence down to bare earth.