Poultry Movements - Growing up!

Its best to introduce new chickens to the flock by popping them in the coop at night, so the chickens all wake up the next morning together. Big Blue was happy to wake up to the beautiful white-speckled Salt, she was a little less than thrilled. Her three chicks has been popped into the Bantie Barn and woke up to a brand new reality - other chickens. Including males! Grumpus is already quite taken by the new ladies. Mamma Salt ran in the pen while I was photographing them and beat the crap out of him, so we'll see how things go with Mamma in the house. :D



We spent about 15 minutes cleaning out the Blue Shed pen for its new inhabitants, pretty basic stuff: rake out the old hay and materials (feathers, etc.), lay out new hay for scratching opportunities, clean out the booda box, then clean and refill the waterer and feeders.



We removed the chicks one by one, took their portraits, then moved them into the pen. They will thrilled to have more room and almost immediately set out to explore. Mamma Wendy separated herself from them, she's been laying eggs so these may be signs she's ready to breed, again. We'll give her chicks a few days to get used to their new environment with Mamma, then we'll likely move Wendy into the Bantie Barn and see if the Frizzle Silkie boys are ready for some boom-chicka-bwock-bwock!

Chick #1 - Looks just like her Mamma, a black smooth-feathered Silkie:



Chick #2 - a gold and black, smooth-feathered Silkie:



Chick #3 - a white & black, Frizz Silkie:



Chick #4 - black and gold, Silkie:



Chick #5 - black and white speckled, smooth-feathered Silkie/Cochin mix:



Chick #6 - black and gold, Frizz Silkie:



Chick #7 - black and white, Frizz Silkie (likely a cockerel):





Chick #8 - black w/ gold bleed thru, smooth-feathered Silkie: