The chicks have been managing to break out of their netted enclosure. I've lost count of the number of times one or other or both of us have been out trying to catch slippery little chickens to pop them back in.
We couldn't see any obvious gaps in the netting. DH weighted the middles down with bricks, just to make sure. 3 escape attempts later, he found a hole in the netting. No idea how we missed it, but we did.
It's repaired now and we've had no successful escapes since.
This morning when I got them out of the shed to put them in the garden, I realised that they have become tiny chickens instead of large chicks. They are 5 weeks old now, so it shouldn't be a surprise... but it is. I'm sure that just yesterday they looked like gangly overgrown chicks.
Feather Growth spurt overnight, I think.
They are, as always, such cutie pops. Because the majority are plain black, the three brown ones stand out a bit. And because one of the brown ones is much lighter (and bigger) than the others, s/he stands out most of all. Of course, if we had 7 brown ones and three black ones, it would be the black ones we'd be drawn to.
The light brown one is known as Big Bird. We think s/he was the one that was enormous when hatched, and we referred to him/her as "Big Bird" then because s/he was a big yellow ball of fluff.
What's the first rule of Dinner Chickens? Don't name them.
We don't even put rings on (unless we have to), because the colour of the ring acts a substitute name. Whenever we've had rings on birds before, they end up being known as "Grey", or "Orange" or whatever. And I know how much harder that makes things.
Big Bird.
