Thursday, June 24, 2010

Outing

The other day I-

Wait. Did you hear that?

Is that?....Yes, it is! It's the sound of hundreds and hundreds of screaming bugs running, crawling, inching, flying for their lives! They call out warning to family and friends! They abandon projects! They leave behind meals and head for the hills, or the neighbor's yard, whichever comes first!

I. Have. Released. The. Chickens.

::Da Da DUUUUMMMMM::


Yes, so the plan was to let the chickens get used to their coop, so they would know that they have a safe place for food, water and shelter. I really didn't want to chase chickens all over the place when it was time for them to get pinned up at night. Impatience threw that plan out of the window.

That and the fact that the grasshoppers were getting bigger.

So I let 'em out! Turns out they are totally cool. They follow me everywhere and I have no problem catching them to put them away. So now they make it to the west side of the barn in the morning and eat by my garden in the shade and then back to the east side in the afternoon where they sit in the shade and rest.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.



Ok, so the red is a Production Red and the gold is a Buff Orpington. They are totally sweet! I haven't named them yet, but plan to. I'm thinking something like... Lucy and Ethel? Ginger and Mabel? Something....I'll keep thinking about that.

The red one is super curious and definitely the leader. She is also the one that stays by me the most. Super friendly and likes to be held/pet but she has a kind of crazy gleam in her eye with Coen. I'm keeping my eye on her.

The gold one is more skiddish and is a bit more difficult to catch. She doesn't like to be held and every time I set her down after picking her up she lies down and ruffles her feathers, like I gave her the heebie geebies. She, however, follows Coen everywhere. If he walks too far away she stands up really tall and  runs after him then stops when she gets a few feet away.

Doing a super good job eating the bugs, though! They are bedded down in my garden as we speak, which I'm not too excited about. I just know they are going to scratch up my seedlings come next planting. Also yesterday I picked yet another huge cucumber but this one had been pecked on.

Not cool.


3 comments:

Ryan said...

Lucy and Ethel!! I didnt realize chickens were friendly at all lol. Thats nice that they are though.

Backpack family said...

That's great. Ours went to the neighbors as soon as I let them roam. He fed his earlier in the evening then I did and they preferred his routine. They really do help with the bugs!

Marie Anne said...

And here I thought I was the only one that named my critters like that. I had sister kittens named Laverne and Shirley (L went missing, but Shirley Girl is still with me).

My laying hens all have names too, and the two young roos are called Lurch and Herman. I've got to decide on names for the four younger hens (production reds, were supposed to all be pullets - ha!)