Chicken Update-Day 2

It is day two of the chickens. We named the adult chickens are names Ms. Prissy, Rose, and Betty. Ms. Prissy will come down the ramp! Ava was so excited when she checked on them this morning and Ms. Prissy was downstairs. The other two girls (Rose and Betty) refuse to come downstairs. They do not do much at all. I am hoping that tomorrow will be a better day for them. I put some food and water upstairs for them. One thing I have noticed is that they like to snuggle with each other. What I have read about chickens is that they are social and do not like to be alone. However, Ms. Prissy is a trooper. She is also the eldest of the chickens and about 2 years old (the other two are 12 weeks). Ava and I like to sit on the ground and watch Ms. Prissy with the ramp and I noticed she complains the whole way up and down it as if to tell me that she may fall and she can't believe we expect her to go up the ramp. It is pretty funny. Silkies have a lot of feathers and fluff and they don't see very well. If we had it all to do over again we would probably have a little different coop design.

The chicks are cute too. Ava and I took them outside for a stint today. We have an old metal dog crate and we put them in there. The chicks were so happy. They were walking around exploring and very happy. I know that sounds silly but they acted different. They were very explorative and I think I translate that to mean "happy" in chicken talk. Unfortunately our cat Lucy was way to interested in what we were doing so we had to put them back up.

The cats seem to leave the chickens alone and the chicks alone (the chicks live in the super brooder my husband made on our kitchen table). BUT if the chicks are outside they are prone to being stalked by the cats. I guess we can't have free range chickens. I also saw a lab sniffing outside the chicken coop today. I yelled at him and he ran off. All in all the chickens are pretty secure especially if they are upstairs.

That is all for now.