New Chicks - First Day Outside

Well, kind of!! The new chicks are 4 weeks old today and it's not getting any warmer, so I decided to try to "encourage" them to come outside. Hindsight, I should have tried this yesterday when their was more sun.

You would think that if you just dropped the door down and let them choose to go outside that they would right? WRONG!!! They will only go if you give them a very good reason too, otherwise they will stay inside where it's SAFE!!! So, next time you buy your "range free" eggs or birds, remember, they must be given access to the great outdoors, it doesn't mean they will go. Trust me when I tell you, they do NOT want those birds outside and they NEVER go!

So, how do you get them outside? You have two options. You can either just pick them up and put them outside, of course you have to catch them first! Herding chickens is pretty comparable to herding cats, they go EVERY WHICH WAY and more often than not, the opposite direction in which you wanted them too go.



Or you can put their food and water just outside the door and hope they are hungry enough to venture out. After a couple days of this they are more than happy to go outside into the free air. The little barred rock above looks like she's thinking about it, shortly there after she's in the feeder and brings a few friends along. The German Spitz below has a little tuff of feathers on it's head. These are my first white egg laying chickens, I wanted something a little different......it will be fun to see what they look like when they are all grown up. There's a Black Australorp in the very back, she's blending into the background.



A little Rhode Island Red decides to join in one the feeding frenzy. You can still see some of her baby feathers.

There are 25 chicks in all, so you can see that the majority of them are choosing to stay safely inside.

Generally once one or two chicks come out, they others feel comfortable enough to join them.....

That is until.....COUGAR (our villain) appears!
Showing a bit too much interest for my taste.



Cougar, don't you even THINK ABOUT IT!!! I chastise him. He doesn't even blink, staring at the young chickens.

I suppose I should explain, for those of you that don't know. Cougar takes great joy in running after and chasing the adult ducks and chickens. He never hurts them, but seems to take great pride in making them scatter! He's such a "naughty" little cat.

This is the same cat that waits along side a jump to pounce on Seeker as he comes over. GEEZ!!!

So I leave the inside of the pen to have a serious discussion with him.


Now, Cougar....are you going to leave these chicks alone? Or do I need to put you in a dog crate???

MEOW!!!!!!

Did he just WINK!!!!

Come on Cougar, you're going in a box....like a dog!! Um, I mean a CAT! G