Chicken run, again

The chickens have finally gotten used to the idea that OUTSIDE is a fun place to be, seeing as how it has grass and bugs to eat and room to chase each other around and fly and stuff. After a couple of weeks of being very unsure about the whole business of having this little door to the Big Blue Room that opened every morning around 11:00am and closed again at nightfall, they’ve taken to the outdoor life with gusto.

Now in the mornings when I open the “pop-hole” door, they (almost) all file out, and start pecking at the grass and shaking the sawdust out of their feathers. Watching them wander around and display for each other and peck at an unfortunate cricket and chase each other around and fly the length of the run is a great way to spend a few minutes of every day.

Despite the chicken wire you see in these photos, they are true “free range” chickens, because the fence is more to keep Carter out than to keep them in, and indeed, they fly over it regularly. They also fly back, most of the time. Sometimes I have to catch one and toss it over the fence. Other times I’ll open the regular (person-sized) door to the coop and the “escapee” will hop back in quite happily.

The middle chicken on the ramp (facing right) is the one I think of as the “chief rooster”. He’s the one who crows, he’s the biggest and the most stately, and he has all his (beautiful, iridescent green) tail-feathers, unlike some of the more scraggly, lower-ranked males.

No eggs yet, in fact no sign of anything I recognise as mating behaviour, so I guess they aren’t quite mature yet. It’s time to  plan when we’re going to start butchering, though. The extra roosters are getting very expensive to feed.