What has been going on this past week:

• Training with the automatic door. Obviously the morning is pretty easy, the door goes up and the chickens go out. At night it’s a different story. We have to make sure they are all in before the door goes down. Some get excited and try to keep coming back out to see us. This will be a work in progress.
• Since they have been outside we are filling the feeders less. They are getting enough food from bugs, grass and a few scraps we’ve thrown in. Today they are enjoying a whole cantaloupe cut into slices. We will see what is left over tomorrow morning.
• Based on the pictures we get of the chickens, the Barred Rocks and Orpingtons are the friendliest. The Leghorns and Reds are very skittish and hardly ever come up to us.
• We put some ash down in an area of the coop for a dust bath. It had all disappeared by the evening. I know a Leghorn was covered because when I saw her outside she shook and a whole bunch of dust flew off her body.
• I have been researching layer feed versus grower feed. What I have come up with is we need to switch to layer feed around week 18. If we start them too early the protein level is less in layer versus grower, and this could cause the bones to not be strong enough as well as kidney issues. We need to keep them on grower feed until they are ready to lay.  Leghorns can begin laying between week 18-20.