Chicken stories

A couple of weeks ago we moved the baby chicks into the coop with the other chickens. Try weren't really babies anymore and they had stopped peeping. Moving chickens happens at night after all the birds have gone to bed. Chickens are not great in the dark, as if their brains are solar powered and don't work when the sun goes down. You can just pick them up and carry them to their new lodgings. Then when all the birds wake up it's as if the newcomers were always there having arrived while the chickens were sleeping. 

Putting the young chickens in the coop meant that no birds could be let out for a couple of weeks as the babies learned that this was home. Tonight, while J. and L. we're switching the waterer to a heated one in anticipation of the hard frost that's predicted, they decided to let the birds out. It was good practice because there was just a half hour or so of daylight giving the new ones very little time to get into trouble. 

They all came out of the pen after a little hesitation and all went well. But when I headed out to feed horses, I realized that three of babies couldn't seem to find the door. They were all pacing back and forth outside looking at their friends inside while being utterly baffled as to how this all happened. I called L. to come and help me herd them back inside. I managed to get two of them to the door, but they got stuck behind it and didn't understand to go around. One managed to sneak underneath the door and hopped into the pen, the other just didn't know what to do. I picked her up because it was going to be faster. When I did, the chicken literally screamed. Normally when picked up they just make a lot of irritated clicking noises, so this was a surprise. I kind of wish I could have recorded it. L. managed to herd the last hen in while I guarded the door because it kind of looked as though the other babies were going to try to leave again. 

I always forget that the first couple of days free ranging new hens always involves some sort of rodeo. In comparison to past years, this was pretty simple. 

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