Free to roam

At last, all the chicks passed the pasty butt test this morning. We spread wood chips all over the coop and turned them loose. I hoped that hanging up the food would prevent them from walking (and pooping) on it, but I soon learned that it is still low enough for the chicks to hop up on it easily. 

The feeder hanging from a chain

The waterer was completely filled with wood chips this morning. Now that we have more space, we installed the green mesh platform that keeps the water away from the wood chips. The chicks were hesitant to walk on the grid at first, but a few of them got the hang of it. I’m sure the rest will learn from them before too long.

An early adopter drinks on top of the green platform

Here is a video of the chicks on Saturday morning (the beginning of their third day with us) for the first 15 seconds and from today when we first let them have access to the whole coop (fifth day).  Many of them stood in the corner and pecked at the wall. The instructor of the first chicken workshop I went to described chickens as “curious, but not bright.” This seemed to be a classic example of that. As the video shows, some chicks suddenly left off pecking the wall to tear across the coop, wings flapping.

Speaking of, the wing feathers are coming in rapidly.  They will be flying soon, and we’ll have to clip their wings.

Wing feathers growing with amazing speed

Miss Clavelle is broody again. We have her in isolation until her brood patch cools off. Probably we will put her back with the other hens tomorrow and see if she’ll stay out of the nest boxes.

Miss Clavelle isolated in the greenhouse

We finally have all of the plants in the garden. The landscape cloth is down; the row cover is over the peas, beans and cabbages. I hope it will be sufficient deterrent for the ground squirrels and rabbits.

Row cover (white) protects our plants from herbivorers

The potatoes have sprouted.

Potato sprouts, now 

Nancy gave me some irises last year when she thinned out her garden. They not only survived the winter, but are blooming. I love irises. This one is a little past its prime, but there are two more buds on it.

This is a good time in the garden. The pressure to get everything planted is over. Now we’ll be weeding for a couple of weeks, and then the harvest mania will begin. For now, we just get to watch things grow.