At last, signs of spring

New green shoots coming up, garlic and onions and chives. Young chicks exploring outdoors. Ducks able to paddle in their pools. The snow is all gone. The cats happy and warm in the sun.

They grow up so fast!

The four Easter Egger chicks are growing up so fast. It seems like we just got them but already they are ready to move out to the coop and get to know the other chickens and the ducks. Having a February 26 hatch date did not allow these northern chicks to get out much for their first 6 or 7 weeks. Finally it was warm enough and they were feathered enough to start having an hour or two outdoors and now they are ready to live in the coop with the other birds. We use the cage in coop and cage in run (or attached separate run depending on amount of chicks) to get the old and new birds acquainted with each other. They've been in the coop for a week and today I let chicks have a little supervised time lose in the chicken yard. They had a great time flying and pecking around. The adult birds were quite nosy and pecked them a bit but nothing major. The adult birds were far more interested in the chicks food since the other groups food is always better than your own, no matter what, always!