Flew The Coop

These were the chicks when they first came home, little bitty girls who fit easily into the cage.  As kids do, they grew and grew.  What with weather, rainy or hot, and other demands on my time, after pulling the weeds in the Taj pen, I just hadn't been able to rearrange the dirt mounds that the ground squirrels had created or filled in the holes to the center of the earth until yesterday.

Finally, finally got the deed done and the chicks got their first taste of freedom.  They weren't really sure how to react and instead of yeeping and dithering as they had in the cage, the little flock went silent and still.  It was, after all, pretty scary out there in the big, wide world with no walls or roof.  The water dish was familiar, so they clustered around that.  It wasn't long before they were running around, scratching in the dirt, and sampling the bits of weeds I'd left for them.

Putting them to bed later went pretty much as expected, like catching BBs.  It helped that I'd put the food dish in the coop and just like their big sisters, they got a nighty-night treat to make bedtime something to look forward to.  They'll get the hang of it.

My Kids are coming home to roost for a little while. Pete and Jake and Larry and Taylor will be here tonight and the rest of my flock will come up tomorrow.  Since I played in the dirt yesterday, there's still a lot to do in the house today.  It's burning daylight and I need to get a move on.