It’s stormy today. Even though it was warmer and the ground began to dry out yesterday, today’s rain made it all soggy again. And the ducks are happy as can be!
Mud makes for good earthworm-hunting, so the ducks and the chickens should get their fill today. They’re constantly on the lookout for tasty bugs, even pausing to grab one on their way back to the coop in the evening.
Even though rain and wind were in the forecast, the teens went out in the tractor this morning. We figured the double-thickness tarp on over the tractor would shield the chicks, as it had worked effetively for our first chicks. When we checked on them this afternoon, though, one chick was standing in a puddle – runoff had pooled in a low spot. Lessons learned: place the tractor on high ground only, and chicks will stand in water even if a dry roost is available.
No one seemed disappointed to head in early today. Tomorrow’s supposed to be partly sunny, so we’ll try again.
The teens have been going out in the tractor daily. We’re glad they’re out, they’re glad to be out, and the rabbit does are undoubtedly glad their noisy neighbors are out during the day.
Anyone who has been to the farm store this time of year knows it’s chick season. The stores will have big galvanized tubs full of chicks and ducklings on display, and some, frustratingly, will fail to ensure that people and/or children don’t handle those chicks (which can result in dropped and injured chicks).
Before we acquired our own chickens, we heard about this phenomenon called “chicken math”, where people seem to lose the ability to think rationally about how many chickens they can/should have. We chuckled and imagined that these were people with latent hoarding tendencies. Until it happened to us. 
The first batch of chicks from our stock are now about five weeks old (we call them “teens”)and nearly fully feathered. They’re also creating a crazy amount of dust in their brooder, so we figured the weather – 70 degrees with a gentle breeze – would be perfect for a first day outside in the chicken tractor.