Birds of a Feather

The chicks are still doing well, now flying solo, as their Mum left them under a gooseberry bush.

Quite literally. The chicks now have their own luxury run among the fruit bushes. Not that they seem to appreciate it as escapes have been made on multiple occasions. Their Mum decided that motherhood was not for her and ran off in to the arms of another man... she's already laying eggs again. 

How anyone can run off from these sweeties is beyond me. Of course, not having a Mum means that humans are now the creature to pester when you want something new and interesting to eat. I've taken to avoiding the top part of the garden when I'm buys as I am powerless to resist. 

Pak Choi is the current choice of exotic food, but in reality anything will do. The garden has been denuded of worms because my Mum is a soft touch, and will go digging to find them handfuls of worms to eat.



There might only be 3 chicks in these pictures, but Hoppy is still alive and well. 

Her left leg sticks out at an angle, and she'd rather sit down and peck around than stand, but she has no problem keeping up with the others, or running away from then when she's got a worm. In fact the only reason she wasn't eating the Pak Choi was because her little crop was already full to bursting. 

This chick is going to be a rooster I reckon, it's already getting a wattle underneath it's beak. I'm not sure about the other chick, it has roughly as many feathers as this one, but no signs of a wattle, though does enjoy a good cockerel style play fight. Big Bird is almost certainly a cockerel, it's twice the size of Hoppy, and bears more ressemblence to a baby crow... 

Speaking of birds other than chickens. Dad found this Blackbird nest the other day while clearning brambles, at first we worried we might have disturbed the nest and scared the parents off. However 2 days later they will still there, and obviously being fed.

They must have been just about ready to fledge as just after I snapped the first picture they all flew off. I was still a good disatnce away, and we'd been and looked from that spot before, so chances are the parents had been trying to entice them out today anyway, and I was the final push!

Final photo... the chickens do like Dad's workshop. So much so that it's become one of the egg laying spots of choice.