Eating from my hand

I took some noodles as a treat to the chickens first thing this morning, as so far it’s the only thing apart from their chick crumb that they will eat. They were not immediately visible, but I soon found them sitting behind the coop. I called to them and they came out to see if I had anything for them. I held out a piece of noodle and Pepper first, followed by Poppy came and gingerly took it from my fingers. Dotty was not brave enough yet but does like to take it from one of the bigger girls beaks.  Soon Pepper and Poppy were happily taking the noodle from my hand. In fact every time we go in now they come over and watch our hands to see if we have anything for them.

Dotty takes a bit of noodle from Poppys beak

My youngest son and his partner came to visit the chickens today. I think they thought they were pretty cute. We showed them how they took the noodles from our hands.

We also blocked off the nest box today so that they would learn to roost on the perches. When we checked in on them at bed time they were jumping on to the coop where the nest box was, as if to try to work out if there was another way in. Eventually they settled for the perches. I felt quite pleased that we have achieved this already. It was quite amusing to see Pepper, who has allocated herself as top hen at the moment, calling the other two to go in and settling them into place before getting herself into position.

We seem to have come a long way in a few days and I already love them so much. I so look forward to getting out each morning and to see what they are up to.