Meadow Musings

Today the chickens are 4 weeks old.  They are mostly-feathered, and spend their days either huddled inside (if it's raining) or wandering outside (if it's clear).  About 10 feet away from their house is a pine tree, from here forward known as 'the chicken tree'.

We have no idea what it is the chickens love so much about this particular tree, but love it they do.  When they hop out of the house in the morning, they'll eat a little grass and then they'll notice the tree, and SQUEE they all run over to it yelling and chirping and flapping.  Then they spend all day hanging out in the tree.

Notice the sneaky chicken feet in the left of that picture.  (Which, by the way, are freakishly large.   Somewhere around week 3 a chick's feet get huge.)  Sometimes they'll try to hop up on one of the lowest branches, which will of course make that branch bend right down to the ground.    Most of the time they lounge, and take dustbaths.  Question:  How does rubbing dirt all over yourself result in any sort of cleanliness?

Getting the chicks to leave the tree at the end of the day involves a broom handle (to herd them out of the area under the branches) and lots of yelling "Chickens!  Stop that!" as they try to sneak back.  You can't really herd them properly, because they are missing both the "stay close to my fellow chickens" gene and also the "don't let humans touch you" gene.  They just wander all willy-nilly around the yard until you've picked each one up by hand and plopped them in the house.  

I don't have any weight reports, because I don't think the chickens will stand for being stuck on the scale anymore.  Since these are meat chickens, I can say:  about Cornish Game Hen sized!