The chicks are thriving. They have their wings and I've opened up the rest of the coop to them. They still have heat lamps on if they need them but they have far more space to roam. They are starting to practice natural behaviours like roosting, dust bathing and flying (well, running really fast while flapping their wings and jumping in the air).
It's been strange recently. They seem to all go through a couple of days when their feathers came through, where they just wanted to lie around and do nothing. Every morning I'd walk in the coop and think 20 of them were dead. Thankfully, this phase passes within around 48 hours.
I'm starting to introduce new things into their diet, in particular greens from around the farm and worms to prepare them for free ranging. They were terrified by the salad at first (much like my kids) but they are embracing it now.
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| Exploring their new territory |
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| Check me out! I flew up here all by myself. |
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| Now, how do we get down? |
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| Here are 2 chicks in their 'down phase', trying to convince me they're dead! |
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| There are a lot of scruffy looking chicks as their feathers come in. |
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