Chooks

We finally have chooks!
David finished building the Hönsborg to my satisfaction, so last Thursday the kids and I trekked to a farm to purchase our 4 point-of-lay ISA Brown hens.

Turns out 4 young hens will fit quite happily into one cat carrier, and they traveled home quite calmly. They seem very quiet and well socialised with people, and have figured out how their water and food dispensers work. Don't seem to know anything about perching or food scraps, although they are starting to show some enthusiasm for the latter.

On the first night I had to retrieve them from far flung corners of the yard and put them into their shed, explaining chook behaviour to them. Couldn't convince them about perching, but the next night they did stick together in a flock.
After a couple more nights they have started sleeping up higher in the nesting boxes. Not ideal, but at least I know they can get up there. Hopefully they are tempted to try the perches at some point. I might need to get David to adjust one of them to be non-swinging so that they can get on a bit easier.

The photos are from day 1, naturally there is a lot less grass in the run now. Fortunately we have a good supply of cypress needles to throw down in there and keep it fairly nice underfoot. They've been busy turning everything over and finding all sorts of old rubbish for me to clear out. They seem to have no less than 3 dust baths made, but I suspect the one out in the rain will be less successful.

So, all things considered they seem to be settling in well. Mr3 is very keen on them and eager to go out and check on them each day. He likes the way they follow him as he walks around the pen, and flee when he stretches out a hand.

No names yet, need to get to know them first.