Henhouse Interior for Now, May 17, 2023
I have spent almost two entire days, morning to sunset, in the enclosed hen pen, sitting with the chicks while they adapt to being outside critters. Doing so has helped them decide I’m a legitimate part of their flock, so now when I go out, two or more of them run over to hang with me on my hand, arm or shoulder. The others stay close, but are having too much fun to “bond” with me in a bigger way.
Hanging with Hens
If hanging with hens sounds sedentary, nothing could be farther from the truth. I’ve been putting in 10,000 steps a day for the past two weeks, while enclosing the secured part of the enclosure and preparing the henhouse for occupancy by this size and larger chickens (because these chicks are growing like Topsy and will very soon attain adult stature).
I ordered one of those old-fashioned wooden clothes drying racks that are made out of dowels. It arrived yesterday, so I put it in the henhouse for them. This morning when I opened the hen ramp door, three of them were perched on it.
The dowels are small enough right now for their feet, but I have also (after the above pix were taken) attached some branches to the dowels to accommodate larger feet. Luckily, Cooper gave me a long branch which I sawed into three right-size lengths for this task. This way, they have options when it comes to dowel sizes until they’ve all developed about the same size feet. Then all of the dowels will need to be enlarged by running branches along them and wiring them in place.
The clothes drying rack set up is the perfect size, luckily. I worried that it might be too tall, but it’s great!
A Black Chick Picked Me Yesterday
One of the black chicks adopted me yesterday. This morning when I entered the hen enclosure and called out to them, they all came running over, but the black chick kept on coming, right up onto my hand and arm, so I did a few video selfies with her. If you’ve befriended me on Facebook, you can see the videos there. There are a lot of fun ones. (I’ve already deleted them from my smartphone, so I can’t attach them here.) The rest of the chicks will hang with me, but she hangs out ON me, very content and talkative (or contemplative, in spurts), for long spans of time. I need to get some mealworms to give her a treat when she does that, so she keeps it up. Maybe I can bribe the others into doing what she does, too. We’ll see! So, see ya later!
PETSMART, HERE I COME!
Just got back from Petsmart, where I got 500 live mealworms and a small jar of dried ones. They lost their minds over the live ones, so I know how to get them into the henhouse early if I need to (before sunset): just let them know I have mealworms! Instant hen carava)!
I have to be careful not to overfeed them though; mealworms are high in fat and protein and so they can only eat up to ten live ones each per day and no more than four dried ones per day. mealwomrms are strictly an occasional treat, not a main diet.
Not much else to report that’s publication worthy, so I’ll shut up and let you get on with your day. HUGS!
