Day 36 - Day 36?!!

Wow, can it really be day 36? That means these chickens are definitely no longer chicks. They are 37 days old and growing big and fat. Each morning I go out to walk Sadie up the road to unlock the gate (not that I expect anyone to come through it really) and I go back down the road towards the house and check the chickens. They are usually a bit low on food so I fill up one of their food troughs (we have two in each chicken tractor), I check the water, then go in for breakfast and wait for the dew to dry. We don't tend to move them until about 9:30. By then the grass is dry and we can move them to a new green spot. It takes both boys and me to move the larger tractor - gosh is it heavy! Kent put removal wooden wheels on and that helps unless we are having to move it sideways and not forward or back.

Once they're on fresh grass, the chickens go wild. I would too. If you could see the mess they make of the spot they've been in for the last 24 hours, you'd want to move too. That mess they've made is such a great thing though! They are part of the soil restoration plan for the pastures. Of course it will be wonderful when we have a few head of cattle to precede the chickens and then follow the chickens with sheep, but those animals will have to wait their turn. All in due time.

I have a wonderful photo of a white, plump chicken but my new computer and I are not seeing eye to eye. So I promise I will post it later, as soon as I get this glitch figured out. In the meantime, just imagine a fat, happy chicken peering through the wire of the chicken tractor.

Sick chicken update:

I am beginning to wonder if my chicken with the bum legs is the one I sat the waterer on a few weeks back. I suppose it's possible. None of the other chickens have suffered from this malady. That poor chick is still alive, but not filling out like the others and is still confined to the hospital pen. I have finally concluded that she (yes, I've determined she is a she) is having a really tough go of things and that the only humane thing to do is to let her go. Only problem is that I can't do it. Hadley has graciously offered to take care of that for me since Kent won't be here to do that for a couple of more days. I think I'll accept his offer.