We had some really warm weather this past weekend and decided to take the opportunity to introduce our 12 baby chicks (not such babies any more) to the outdoors. We used the run our full grown bantam hens use when we’re not around to supervise their activities.
First the chicks all hunkered together in the corner. The wind would blow and they’d get a scared look on their little chicken faces. Then, slowly they started to mill around. I put Gail, one of our bantams, in to the run to see how they’d interact. She was pretty annoyed. Anytime the chicks would venture down to her end of the run she would flap her wings and even peck at them. Eventually we added all of the other bantams to the run and they seemed to all interact ok.
Our chickens love rolled whole oats. I swear they are like chicken crack. At first I thought it was just our bantams, but when given the chance, the chicks dove right in. Scratching at pecking at the ground to get ever last morsel of oatmeal. You’d think we starved them or something.
This was the first of many upcoming introductions into the outside world. The shed should be move in ready for all the chickens within the next couple weeks and they’ll move from the basement pen into the shed. We’re super excited to expand our chick flock!
