More Chicken Conversation

I feel as though I've left you hanging regarding updates on my fatties (the meat birds).  After reading and reading online I found one site that recommended feeding them only as much as they can eat in 4-5 hours.  So we did this.  We separated them into their own Rubbermaid and gave them a heap of food each morning and plenty of water.  I will say, that helped in getting them up off their fat, feathered butts! When we went down they popped up and "begged" for food.  We only did this for a week and then the coop was finished and we were able to move them all outside.  The run is not yet constructed so I'm waiting to post pictures until the whole thing is complete, but it's pretty fancy.  That's what happens, I guess, when your husband is a builder!

Now that all the birds are together we can't have the meaties on a special diet, but it seems like slowing their growth down for just that one week did help.  They wander all around now and actually can move pretty quickly.  Every now and then, one will lower its head and then just charge. They charge at nothing at all, but it's hilarious to watch.

The hens have begun popping up and down in the air.  In fact, when we first moved them to the coop there was about a half hour of excited flapping, running, and jumping. I'm sure it was nice to finally have some room to stretch their wings!

Tonight we were out there refilling food and water and a moth flew in and was circling the heat lamp.  These birds were all at immediate attention.  All their little heads were upright and focused on the erratic flight pattern of this moth.  When it landed they would all rush to the area where they saw it go down and start scratching and pecking to try and find it.  I guess it is as close as you can get to giving your chickens a toy!  It cracked us up.

They've also impressed us with their quick ability to clean out the inside of a spaghetti squash.  I had already scraped out the soft part for eating, but there was still some flesh around the inside of the squash.  An hour later, the skin of the squash lay in the corner of the coop like a deflated balloon - not a scrap of squash left!

We finally met our neighbors and the guy grew up on a farm and was more than happy to show us how to butcher and clean the birds so, when the time comes, we might be undertaking that task ourselves... eek.