Feathers and All

The little baby chicks are no longer, they are chickens. They're not full grown yet but they are maturing and have left the gawky-oh-my-god-how-can-I-stand-on-these-feet stage. They are at the I-WILL-fly-and-heaven-help-any-human-who-stands-in-my-way stage. They are about seven weeks old now. I turned off the brooder light a while back and I'd say they are ready for the coop. Hopefully the coop will be ready for them soon. The two in the pictures are not the biggest of the bunch, but they were the easiest to catch.

They have three feeders. One standard long one, and a couple of plastic dishes I improvised. I noticed that the chickens higher up on the social ladder would eat first and chase away any lowly wannabe socialite. The ones not eating just kind of stood off a bit, trying to look like they didn't care if they don't get to eat. I found that adding feeders gave everyone a chance to get some food. Mind you, there are a couple of real pieces of work in the crew that are eating at the big feeder and go flying over to the little feeders for no more purpose than to chase away the birds eating there. They don't even seem to realize that while they're chasing the others, they themselves are not eating; definitely not the tightest knit sweaters in the drawer. They kind of remind me of a couple of kids I knew in high school.

The roosters are trying to crow and failing miserably. When I first heard the early attempts, I thought a chicken was choking to death. Now they sound like they have sore throats. I'm sure the hens are laughing at them behind their wings. Everybody roosts from time to time and try to fly. They are have some success with the flying. My son came upstairs and told me there was a chicken siting on top of the brooder. Hhmm, guess it's time to close that in. I have fed them a couple of worms. Now that's funny. I'll drop the worm in and someone will grab it and head out to a secluded corner as fast as his little chicken legs can go. He kind of ducks his head down in the hopes no one will notice he has food. Of course, they always do and chase him. The little chicken scoots along, eating and running at the same time. Then he turns around and shows the chickens his empty beak. The worm doesn't even know what hit it.

As interesting as they are, I'm looking forward to when they are outside, running around and having much more room. They will be happier and so will I.