Those girls (and boys) are pretty much all grown up!
We needed to reseed the former garbage hill and of course the chickens thought that it was a buffet for them. Despite a fence they were getting those seeds. Now the flock it fenced in around their coop. They seem happy, some come and go as they please. A few come out as soon as their door is opened, a few wait until later in the evening for some foraging.
Everyone is starting to figure out their place in the flock. Ragnar and Faux-Roo are getting along pretty well. A few times a day they have puffed-out stand offs, no one gets hurt and Ragnar usually backs off and takes on someone smaller. I suspect once he's the same size as Faux-Roo the pecking order may change a bit. Faux-Roo does not have the tail feathers of a rooster. I'm curious if this is just how his genes are. I've read that "undesirable" genes aren't uncommon from hatchery chicks, which is fine with me as we don't have any fancy chickens. Poor Defective Faux-Roo!
Here's the two for a big of comparison Ragnar above and Faux-Roo below. In the pictures they look very different, in real life Faux-Roo has a greenish mane if you will. Faux-Roo acts very rooster-y, bossy, has stand offs with Ragnar.
I think all the chickens hop up and roost at night time, a few roost in odd places. Barred Simpson roosts above the window on the frame and Nancy Drew roosts on the frame behind the water. Whatever they want to do. I will say Nancy Drew is probably the smartest chicken we've got. She's got that whole chicken thing down. In and Out of the coop as she's pleases, using both the chicken and people door. She has been the first to do most of their 'milestones'.
There is a dust bath set up under their coop in their fenced in area, do they use it? No. Ragnar has dug up the grass and made a little chicken shaped hole where he lays and rolls around. Once the grass grows in and they're back out roaming I'll set up a few more and see what happens.
One of the ducks has opted to "fly" out each morning. By fly I mean jump and flap and hope not to land on her face.Yesterday she flew over the fence and then tried to keep flying while running. Good job ducky the duck. Goldman Quacks on the other hand uses the slow slide down the ramp. They haven't figured out of to get back in yet, I'm hoping that comes soon. We did put their bath in the fenced area yesterday and one maybe both figure out how to get in. Sometimes they pretend they're swimming and it's hilarious.
One of the neighbor's cat has been skulking around. I've caught it watching the girls from the long grass about 50 ft away and may have turned the sprinkler on while it was in my yard another time. I suppose I shouldn't live trap it, but there really isn't too much I can do to keep other people's outdoor cats out of my yard. We haven't had any predators make a move, yet. I know that day will come. So far the flock is really good about running when they hear something.
We should start getting eggs hopefully in the month or so. We already have layer feed (with more calcium) for the girls. I'm just waiting to find a random shell-less egg some where.
Jeez Louise I'm getting a little wordy this week but this week I managed to get photos of everyone! Including the elusive Cuckoo Chanel! My update is a little late, we had a crazy day yesterday.
