Happy Easter Chicks

 The Chicks are spending more time outdoors now which is wonderful as I can reclaim my living room.  They still need to come indoors at night and sleep under a heat lamp for a couple more weeks.  As the days have been so warm I have had them in their coop or run in the daytime.   The above picture is my youngest supervising them for their first time in their run.  'One Man and his Chickens'.

 Forgive me for the photograph of the chickens bottom, it is quite tricky to take photographs of chickens as they are fast and not very obedient, like my kids and dog!  They really enjoyed scratching and pecking on the grass and they are amazingly adept and swift at chasing and catching tiny bugs to eat.

 They are friendly and rush to greet us if we go out, but they  protest when they are picked up.  I left them out until dusk last night and they were all stood on their flower pot cheeping their alarm calls, I think they are afraid of the dark!  They didn't protest to be carried indoors.  It was a very warm night so they spent their first night without their lamp so it was dark, but indoors.  I went to bed listening to their pitiful cries, their alarm call is quite loud, shrill and repatitive, but their unhappy cries are a constant little worrying squeaks.  Tonight when I brought them in they were worrying again, I put the lamp on and they have gone straight to sleep.

I am wondering how long it will be until they are big girls and brave enough to sleep in their coop without causing a noise disturbance to all my neighbours!  It thundered today for about half an hour, they coped with that by running for cover in their coop.  They show no fear of my dog that eyes them up like Sylvester the cat after Tweety Pie.  Everytime the dog thinks I am not looking I can see her licking her lips!  These Hens will not be free ranging.  I have found out they are F1 Brown Link Hybrid variety - Battery Hen variety. 

 "Various combinations of pure breeds were originally used to create egg laying hybrids, the most popular being a Rhode Island Red cockerel and a Light Sussex hen. These breeds have of course been modified over the years to create better parent stock that will lay even more eggs. It is thought the White Leghorn has also been used and this is where the battery hen has got her large floppy comb from". 
Poultry Keeper - This is where I found the info
 They have been bred as the most prolific layers and lay more eggs in their lifetime than any other breed.  This is when they are kept in an artificial environment with artificial light constantly.  These ladies will not produce as many eggs as a battery hen would and will stop laying when daylight drops to less than fourteen hours a day.  Fantastic I might get three eggs out of each of them this year!  An egg still seems a very long way off.  We will probably fight over the first in this house or share it!   For now I will have to console myself with eggs of the Chocolate variety.  I hope you are all enjoying a Happy Easter Weekend.