Hangin’ With the Boys, Pickin’ Up Chicks
The girls have been moved into their coop full-time now. They’re just about fully feathered now, and they were telling me as clearly as chickens can (pretty clearly, actually!) that they were sick of the brooder box. Most domestic animals, I think, are basically good at communicating their needs to humans: it’s kind of a prerequisite for making the whole thing work. Anyway, the chicks were flapping all around in their box, roosting on the side and pooping on our floor, squawking loudly to be taken outside at the break of dawn, and scolding and haranguing me at night when I brought them back in. They seem much happier now that they’re in the coop full-time.
I’m starting to let them go out a bit in the larger yard, too, as you can see. But they’re still quite little, and I’m concerned about roaming cats. So they won’t get to be outside without supervision until they’ve grown up. Eventually they’ll have the run of the backyard all day long. The fun thing about chickens is that they put themselves away at night—when the sun goes down, they file back into their coop, no chasing or herding required. They are little homebodies at heart.
Here’s a close-up of their beautiful feathering:
May 28th, 2012 at 7:08 pm
They’re so beautiful!
May 28th, 2012 at 8:10 pm
I know!
They still don’t much like being picked up, but if I open the coop door and sit down they’ll come and graze right next to me, companionably.
May 29th, 2012 at 1:13 am
LOL @ post title!
Also, good photos.
May 29th, 2012 at 8:44 am
Thank you!
May 29th, 2012 at 3:54 am
Oh, they’re lovely! Beautiful coop, too. May I ask you some numbers questions? I’m wondering how much yard you have, and how many chickens. And do chickens need a fenced area to roam within? When I was growing up, we didn’t have a fenced in area for them, but we were also on five acres out in the middle of nowhere. We couldn’t have chickens where we are now, but it may be possibility in the next house (assuming that next house materializes). Their “no herding required” feature is particularly appealing. 🙂
May 29th, 2012 at 8:58 am
What I’ve heard is that you want ten square feet per bird. We have three chickens, but we could keep more with the yard space we have. That coop is only suitable for up 4 chickens though, or 6 bantams, according to mypetchicken.com. (There’s a lot of good info at that site.)
I think if you’re living in a residential neighborhood you would want to fence your yard. Otherwise your chickens would be quite likely to wander out in the street, or to go eat all your neighbor’s flowers or something. Plus they’d be vulnerable to neighborhood dogs.