De and I gave the chickens a bit of a supervised outing this evening. I'd heard on a recent 'The Survival Podcast" episode that a good time to let them out for the first time was a short while before they went into the coop for the night. I did this yesterday but was a bit late and most of them were already in for the night when I opened the gate to the run. Tonight we opened the gate around 7:30 and they went in for the night around 9:00. It was quite a good time for them and us!
Bugs were chased and caught, a number of the little bitty frogs we have so many of this year (does anyone else have these?) met an early demise, and a good part of yard was looked over. Mostly though they hung around the outsite of the run and just acted like chickens. Zyla the dog (who proved herself to be a bit less than completely trustworthy with the birds) and I made sure they didn't find their way into the garden.
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| First real "free-ranging" outside the run. |
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| The whole thing made Fred the Rooster a little nervous and he spent part of his time herding hens back toward the run. |
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| He was definitely watching our for his girls, who were clearly enjoying themselves. |
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| It was supervised outing, with De and Zyla the dog (on the leash) sharing in the supervisory duties |
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| Zyla did get one little nip at tailfeathers of one bird before there was a correction. Overall she was pretty good considering the hens got right in her face. |
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| De worked at getting some close-up pics of Fred. The evening light really brought out his colors. |
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| Electra "photo-bombed" one shot. |
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| She finally got the shot! |
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Lessons Learned:
- Evening is a good time for supervised outings.
- Zyla the dog and Abby the cat will NOT get the keys to the Crooked House Layers Club.
- Teaching the birds to come when called (at first using some scratch as a reward) makes it easy to have the birds out of the run and handle them well.
- Fred has the early appearance of becoming a good roo for the flock.
- They really are entertaining!
Col. 1:9-12,
Mark
