Tuesday, October 16, 2007

One of these eggs is not like the others...

It's smaller!

One of the new chicks laid an egg! Was it Dorothy, Pippi, Sophie, or Ayla? Based on her behavior of late, I think it was Sophie.


Over the past 2 weeks, we successfully integrated old and new chicks. We began by removing the fence that divided the chicken run in half. Iris and Hyacinth occasionally harassed the new chicks, but the little chicks had plenty of escape routes and spots to hide, so only a few squawks ensued.

At night the little chicks were secured in their baby pen. After two weeks of this, it was time to complete the integration process, so one night after dark, when all the chickens were sleepy and roosting, we removed the little chicks from their pen, and placed them in Henbogle coop.
A few squawks were heard, but not many, and the next morning, there appeared to be little in the way of physical damage to the little chicks.

After 2 nights of the midnight transfers, we closed off the little coop, and at dusk, we went out to make sure they were in Henbogle Coop, and they were.
The first few nights the little chicks huddled together in the nest boxes, but now seem to be making themselves comfortable on the roost. We managed the transition just in time, I'm sure more eggs will soon be following.

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