Our second batch of
chicks is currently hatching, which means that it’s
time to pay more attention to our month-old diddlies.  The truth
is that that first month of life is easy as pie now that we’ve dealt
with beginner mistakes (like rats).  I refill their waterer and feeder and open
the door to let the chicks roam every morning, then shut them in at
night.  Otherwise, we just enjoy their antics and ungainly
appearance.



But this time next week,
we’ll have a new set of chicks wanting to take
over the outdoor
brooder.  In
the past, I’ve moved the month-olds
into our secondary chicken coop, which may be what happens this year as
well.  However, I’d really like to keep them working up the mulch
under our fruit trees, which are just now blooming (so,
presumably, bad insects are just now starting to fly).  One option
would be to move at least a few of the month-olds into the tractor that
our orchard
hens
eschewed last month.  Another (less likely) option would be to
build them an orchard coop big enough to keep the whole flock happy for
another month.



Decisions,
decisions!  One of these days, we’ll be ahead enough on annual
farm tasks that adding experiments onto the April schedule doesn’t seem
close to impossible.  Unfortunately, we’re not there yet.