Peep Update

My peeps are growing like crazy weeds!  They are now4 weeks old and about 5" tall.  They are very skittish now as well.  I have  a few that are pretty inquisitive and like to investigate me, but the rest run and cower at the other end of the brooder screaming 'Monster!!  Run for your life!!!'  Drama queen birds...

It is about time that we open up the rest of the brooder to them.  This will give them the whole 8x8 area to run and scratch through.

They are also getting pretty stinky.  If it ever quits raining here, I need to clean out the brooder and put down fresh pine for them.  However since it has been pouring for days on end I have postponed cleaning the brooder and started drawing up arc plans.

My older hens out in the coop called me up on the cluck line again requesting life vest be issued to everyone.  Poor hens are knee deep in mud in the run.  I try to let them free range as much as possible when the run gets really mucky.   But when it rains, they all hang out in the run and coop anyway so they end up staying in.

The peep are feathering out nicely.  My basement is riddled with fly away tiny downey feathers.  It is always a cleaning chore when we move the little ones outside from the basement.  They dust and feather everything up something terrible.

Four weeks ago it was all they could do to reach the food and water rings.  Now they tower over them and are ready for some low perches to be added to the brooder, and the food and water tanks raised up.  You have to keep the food and water tanks at about shoulder height on the birds to keep them from kicking litter and flooring into the rings.  Its a clean thing.