First days out

My mom used to tell the story of how when she first placed me outside on the grass as a young toddler I immediately began to cry. I'm not sure if it was the texture, the color, the temperature or just a bad day but it seems I wasn't to happy about the development. On Friday evening, after finishing setting up our fenced in chicken run, we herded the chickens out of the hen house and through the door into the great outdoors. They were not pleased.

It was immediately after a fresh dousing of rain so the dirt covered areas were a bit muddy and the grass was damp. It was quite humorous to watch our young girls pick up their feet to look at and peck at the mud on their feet. They were only out for a couple of hours before it was time to put them back in for the night.

On Saturday they were out most of the day and a bit happier about the circumstances. We did some more work to the run, adding chicken wire to the bottom of the chain link panels and digging it into the ground several inches to deter predators who might try to dig under the panels. Then on Sunday morning we let them out again, knowing we would be gone all day. I was more than a bit nervous to leave my "babies" outside all day, alone, being unable to save them if I heard or saw any mean animals looking to eat them. On a website forum I've been spending some time learning about chickens I recently read several horror stories come true of chicken owners arriving home to an entire flock of dead chickens caused by neighborhood dogs, weasels or coyotes. We arrived home around 8PM to find all 28 little chickens running around in the pen grazing and chirping happily.

Now this morning, as I opened the hen house door they all piled out into the run as quickly a they could. I think they like it outside and it looks like their feed should last a lot longer now too.

In case you are wondering how we ended up with 28 chickens, here's how along with the different breeds for those who know chickens.
*2 given to us by a friend-1 is a rooster, the other an Aracauna that will lay blue/green eggs
*21 from the hatchery-I ordered 20 in 4 different breeds, 21 arrived healthy and well-Silver Laced Wyandottes(6), Buff Orpingtons(5), Plymouth Barrred Rocks(5), Red Sex Linked(5)
*5 more from the local feed store, they were too cute to pass up-Black Australorp, Brown Sex linked, California White, and two others of unknown breeds.

As crazy as you may think we are, we are really enjoying the chickens. We will go out to feed them, let them in or out or water them and end up out there with them for an hour or longer just watching them or feeding them worms. We are looking forward to being able to eat farm fresh eggs straight from the hen house this fall.

I'll add pics later.