First day out

Today was a big day.



Today the little chicks moved outside. Except they aren't even little anymore. They are huge! They are kind of tall and gangly, which is just the breed. The little Rhode Island Red cockerel is already about as big as Little Stew.



Here is the Stewster meeting the evil mini rooster and the little black girl.






And the others visiting.







The evil little blue boy and a girl.







The blues sisters.







The splash girl.








The red boy was gettin' a little crazy out there.







Word to your mother!



He is so much bigger than the blue ones. I think I missed getting the red girl in any individual pics.....she is very quiet and stays out of the way. She is in the pics of them "visiting" up above.


So they were chilling in the little pen all day. Even though I have the big pen mostly finished, I don't have anything up for shade and still have to fix the gates so they "shut" and patch a few holes. I plan on just letting the big kids out loose in the yard tomorrow. Hope all goes well. They were out all day today, so I will keep my fingers crossed.

I still have the problem of what the heck to do with them during the night. I made a little partitioned area (where Stew used to stay) in the big coop for them now, but it is a pain to have to catch them all and shove them in there. It's like a repeat of the last batch that I would catch and truck up and down the hill every night to the garage. In theory, I could do that but these are not friendly enough to catch and move every day and night. I am hoping I can just let them out of their area toomorrow morning and just shove them out the little door into the outside.


The big kids are enjoying their outside time. They still come in the coop to lay eggs.





Or rather, the only chickens that lay eggs come back to the coop to lay them. Both the white girl and Stew have figured out to come back to the coop and get in the one nest box to leave a deposit. Good chickens!


Sometimes they make so much noise the others have to come investigate.






It was so hot today that I did not get anything decent done outside. The plan was to move the roosts over....







Which I did. And then build a little pen for the kids in the coop that connects to their little pop door. Didn't get to that.


Oh well.



I did manage to catch a HUGE black widow spider eating a lizard it had caught and killed.


Seriously.








Have I ever mentioned my spider phobia?








Or my lizard phobia?



Let's just say it was not a good time. And that fucker would NOT DIE. It is probably still there, STILL ALIVE DAMN IT.




Speaking of things alive or NOT....last night I candled the eggs and pulled all of the non fertile eggs that have not developed.








As expected, all of Stew's eggs and all of the store eggs did not appear to be fertile.


And of the others?







Of the two batch of eggs I got, one is doing much better (percentage wise). We'll see how it goes. I did not remove any of those eggs, but will candle again in a day or two and pull the ones that have not changed. I definitely don't want any exploding eggs in the 'bator!




On to other bird related things....







What's that?









One of the 4 baby birds in the carport nest is getting ready to fly away!


Pretty soon I will have empty nest syndrome.


After the drama today trying to get something built for the blue batch of chicks, I am ready for an empty nest! It was TOO HOT to do anything today. I was in the coop in front of the fan and just sweating my ass off. It was ridiculous. If it was cooler today I could have finished all of the pen and coop building, I think. But it was just way too hot to do anything outside.


PLUS, I am tired of building things. I still need to get the big pen finished up and the new pop door built. I am going to do a good cleaning of the brooder pen in the garage as it is absolutely disgusting. Then this winter I am going to do nothing! Nothing day in and day out and it will be glorious. GLORIOUS I SAY.


Or not. But I am ready for the bugs to all be dead and it to be too cold to be outside. Can't wait!