Apparently the poop catcher under the roost is also scary. I noticed that the chickens had stopped even playing on the roost, so I took out the poop catcher, changed out the wobbly branch and put the 2×3 back in. The chickens appreciate the change.
I’ll try to put it back once they start actually sleeping up there. They still huddle in the corner together now.
We did health checks with weight, vent and feet check, and band size check. The chicks are still putting on weight, which is good. Magic is the largest at 753g (1.66 lbs). They are over 8 weeks old, so we have also introduced scratch grains. We are staying on chick feed, though. One of the local suppliers of the organic grower feed has some on back order, so we are waiting for that. A bit frustrating to have the labels say chick feed to 8 weeks, and layer feed for over 16 weeks, but the feed for 8-16 weeks is no where to be found.
I stuck a threaded hook in the stem of a cabbage and hung it up for the chickens. They were not impressed. Interested, but they can’t seem to get enough enthusiasm to eat it.
The apple I hung up a couple days ago was devoured. But not right away. We’ll see what happens with the cabbage.
So I have been labeling all my YouTube videos with “chicks”. Now that they are fully feathered, I am labelling them “pullets”, except I’m not so sure they are all pullets. I took a picture of Seashell and Tigger on the chicken swing together and I think that Seashell may be a cockerel (male chicken under one year old), not a pullet (female chicken under one year old). Seashell is developing black feathers under his (?) chin, much like adult Faverolle roosters.
So there is a debate in the household on chicken names. My eldest would like the cockerel we keep (oh yes, it looks like if there is one, there are maybe 3 or 4) to be named Cockatrice. My husband thinks it would be funnier for the blog to have a rooster named Seashell. Maybe when we know for sure, we’ll do a poll.
So I really thought that hanging a ring of watermelon rind would be great fun for the chicks. Nope. Apparently it is a great scary thing.
At first the chicks were in a different run (I haven’t made the doors yet, although the poultry wire is now up). I put the watermelon ring up, but all the chicks stared at it from the other run. Then I helped one a little, she grabbed a piece, started it swinging, and scared everyone off. I missed getting video of another having a try and leaping three feet in the air when it moved.
Here is a video of a chick walking up on the poultry wire to avoid the ring. I don’t know why she didn’t cross to the other side. The paths chickens take have long been a quandary.
The chicks eventually figured out how to deal with the swinging ring, because a couple hours later the watermelon was cleaned out!
Critters and Craft 