September Update

The Silkies had their three-month-old birthday at the beginning of September. It is sooo hard to sex Silkies and these babies are truly enigmatic, but as the month progressed it became obvious what was going on.   I was and continue to be almost positive Emily's a girl - she's got a rounded, feminine crest on her head and carries herself like a hen.  Courtney, with an upright, rooster-like stance, was the largest of the Silkies. Courtney's head-feathers were sort of swept back and her neck feathers were rough. I was guessing Courtney was a rooster. Then Courtney crowed.  That solved that mystery.  Petite Paulette was somewhat hen-like in posture, but had rough head and neck feathers. I thought that this little bird could go either way. Then Paulette crowed.  That mystery was also solved. 

Since the breeder I got the Silkies from will take them back if you for some reason are not satisfied (with no money refund), and since I do NOT need any more roosters, I took them back on September 12th.  That left Emily as the only Silkie.  Even though she had the two Marans and Angitou the Polish for company, I think this poor little hen felt a little sad, lonely, and abandoned.

Emily is sad

Other news that is a bit more upbeat: Early in September I started to build a half-acre chicken run to give my birds more space to move around in. First I put up this 10 foot wide, 8 foot high gate - wide enough to drive the tractor thru and hopefully high enough to contain the chickens.

Then I started in on the fence.  Here's a line of fence posts going up the hill.  Some of the posts came from the farm I grew up on and are perhaps older than I am. A good steel fence post will last a long time!

Here's how it's looking right now: Four feet of wire fence topped by four feet of netting. Not only will this contain the chickens, it will also keep the deer out and will probably keep the zombie hordes at bay after the apocalypse!