First Night Outside
October 30, 2014 at 9:41 PM
Leah Rae Verde in 31 Days 2014, Baby Chicks, Backyard Chickens, Family Life, Homestead

After a glorious day exploring the coop and run the chicks seemed a little lost as the sun went down. A few of them huddled together in the run. A couple tried to roost on the feeder. A couple of brave little chicks hung out at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the hen house, but not a one of them went inside. We waited for a little bit to see if any of the chickens would figure it out on their own but that never happened. I wanted to secure them for the night and make sure that all of the girls were safe and warm, I thought if I crawled inside the run I could shoo them up into the house. I convinced the girls to run silly into the space under the house, but I couldn't get them to go up the ladder. I didn't fit any further. My five year old and I switched places and he happily caught each chick one by one and placed them inside. The next night we went back outside at dusk to see if they figured it out on their own. This evening half the little ones had put themselves to bed but the other half seemed stranded outside the hen house. Again my son gleefully situated himself under the house and set the remaining chicks inside. On the third night we came out to find that all of the chicks had managed to tuck themselves into bed on their own and most of them even figured out how to roost, instead of huddling together on the floor.

This post is part of 31 Days- a writing challenge and twenty-eighth in my baby chick series!

Article originally appeared on Gratefully Nourished (http://www.gratefullynourished.com/).
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