A couple of the chicks have started to experiment with actual clucking. It's actually kind of cute, although I'm sure I'll get used to it very soon. Well, that or get completely irritated, and start wishing they were outside already.
We've had a couple of escape attempts, both by one of the ISA Browns. The Cornish Rocks are much larger and heavier, so they can't get up on the roost; the Brahma seems to have very little interest in the roost at all. But both of the ISA Browns love to flutter up there and roost for short periods of time. One of them has gotten the hang of fluttering up to the roost, then from there, up to the top edge of the hutch (when the lid is opened). So far, we've managed to catch her before she can actually try to get down outside, but I'm sure it'll happen eventually. I just hope the cats and dog aren't right there when it does happen; if they are, her chances of survival won't be good.
I've also caved and decided that we can name the pullets; since they're going to be around for a few years, I'd rather give them actual names than just refer to them as "chicken". As I believe I mentioned, the Brahma is "Mama", and the two ISA Browns will be "Isa" [not very creative, but it works!], and David has requested that the other be named "Shelly".
I took them outside for a few hours again yesterday. They warmed up to the playpen much more quickly this time around, and explored a bit more. While I was moving them, our neighbor was outside, so I took some time to talk to him. He was so excited about us having chickens, and assured me that they wouldn't have the slightest problem at all. I told him that if anything about the chickens poses a problem for them, be it noise, mess, or anything else, to please let me know; he repeated that there won't be any problems from their side. In fact, he told me, "When I first heard that you got chickens, I thought to myself, 'Oh, good! Now, if we get some, I KNOW they won't have a problem with us having them!' "
In slightly related news: it's high time that our township fully accepted people keeping chickens. The following article was published on Tuesday, about one of the towns in our area: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/04/chickens_free_to_roam_backyard.html They passed a city ordinance allowing "the raising of up to six chickens on all single-family properties". There are restrictions, such as a $50 one-time permit, no roosters allowed, 'roaming' allowed during daylight hours, and prohibiting any outdoor slaughtering. But they're all very reasonable restrictions. They even removed a proposed requirement for a six-foot high opaque fence.
If one of the more upper-class cities in the area can approve an ordinance like this, then there's no reason why our little rural township shouldn't. I'd even be happy to pay a one-time permit fee, for the comfort of knowing that I won't have to try to defend our decision to have a little more control over our own food supply, and to be a little more self-sufficient. I think I'm going to have to look into what it would take to get a proposal like this is front of our township board. I'm not very good at dealing with people (except in writing), but the alternative is to sit back and wait for someone else to do it; who knows when that might happen, if at all?
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