In Training

Yesterday, our chicks made 6 weeks old. They are drinking about 1 gallon of water a day, and a 3 lb. coffee can of feed. Training has begun to prepare them for being free range birds that I don't have to constantly worry about.

The objective here is to open the door in the morning, let them roam all day, and then close the door at evening and trust that they've put themselves to bed. So far, so good.



A few days ago, I locked a couple of each breed outside of the coop for the afternoon. They were not happy being seperated from the security of thier coop and thier sister hens and they did not venture more than a few feet from the coop's door.

They were all really uncomfortable, although after a time they did finally start scratching and looking for bugs.



The next day, I brought out a few more....
and the next ....a few more.



It was funny, when I finally opened the door they were all back inside faster than greased lightning.

Today, I just opened the door and walked away. All but 4 ventured out on thier own and immediately started after the grass and what bugs they could find.



They were having a fine ol' time investigating thier surroundings and some of my guineas even flew up on top of the coop to get a better view of life.