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May 21, 2023 15:16
Observe

There’s a lot going on in this photo, let’s break it down. This is the temporary brooder set up in a corner of my room (all cleared out because I’m packing up to go to Green Hills.) You can see it’s divided into two sections. The smaller section on the lower left with the little hillock in it is for the Golden Sebrights, and the larger pen is for the Azure Eggers (you can just see a couple of them over the edge of the plastic tarp.)

In the lower left corner of the image there are three Sebrights napping on the edge of the cardboard box! They like it. I don’t understand how it works, I know there is some special roosting ability in chicken legs, but it’s impressive. I couldn’t nap sitting on a fence.

I put several different roosts along the edge of the brooder: a paper towel tube cut and rolled a little tighter/smaller than normal with a paper towel around it to offer traction; a length of stick; and a wooden paint stirrer (never used on paint, I mixed soil with it.) Still, they like just the edge of cardboard.

In the back in the corner is the box that the eggers sleep in at night, and on the right you can see the prototype of my simple computer system that I’m building. I have since had to cover that up, the eggers started jumping up there. It’s incredible how fast chickens grow. Each day they seem to “level up” and are ready for new things. I can’t wait to get them up to the land and let them run around (inside their respective runs, of course.)

That reminds me, having the two flocks next to each other like this should hopefully let them get used to each other as kids, and curtail inter-flock aggression when they grow up. The Sebrights are about twice as old as the eggers now, but they’re bantam so the eggers are already a little larger, and much heavier. The Sebrights mostly ignore the eggers, who, frankly, are obnoxiously frightened of me and them and everything that isn’t clearly food. Once in awhile one of the eggers will jump up onto the roost and then look around nervously at the Sebrights, who look back like, “Uh-huh, now what?”

There's a lot going on in this photo, let's break it down. This is the temporary brooder set up in a corner of my room (all cleared out because I'm packing up to go to Green Hills.) You can see it's divided into two sections. The smaller section on the lower left with the little hillock in it is for the Golden Sebrights, and the larger pen is for the Azure Eggers (you can just see a couple of them over the edge of the plastic tarp.) In the lower left corner of the image there are three Sebrights napping on the edge of the cardboard box! They like it. I don't understand how it works, I know there is some special roosting ability in chicken legs, but it's impressive. I couldn't nap sitting on a fence. I put several different roosts along the edge of the brooder: a paper towel tube cut and rolled a little tighter/smaller than normal with a paper towel around it to offer traction; a length of stick; and a wooden paint stirrer (never used on paint, I mixed soil with it.) Still, they like just the edge of cardboard. In the back in the corner is the box that the eggers sleep in at night, and on the right you can see the prototype of my simple computer system that I'm building. I have since had to cover that up, the eggers started jumping up there. It's incredible how fast chickens grow. Each day they seem to "level up" and are ready for new things. I can't wait to get them up to the land and let them run around (inside their respective runs, of course.) That reminds me, having the two flocks next to each other like this should hopefully let them get used to each other as kids, and curtail inter-flock aggression when they grow up. The Sebrights are about twice as old as the eggers now, but they're bantam so the eggers are already a little larger, and much heavier. The Sebrights mostly ignore the eggers, who, frankly, are obnoxiously frightened of me and them and everything that isn't clearly food. Once in awhile one of the eggers will jump up onto the roost and then look around nervously at the Sebrights, who look back like, "Uh-huh, now what?"