Sneezes

Have you ever heard a chicken sneeze? It is a delicate outburst, appropriate for a bird. Once in a great while, a very vigorous sneeze is accompanied by a gentle little tooting sound. During the last week, as we prepared our chickens for their life in the pasture by weaning them from their heat lamp and making them spend more time outside, they responded by starting to sneeze. Standing among them for a while, you might be able to hear several sneezes popping up from different parts of their brooder. Their eyes are bright, they are active and growing, but they are sneezing.

We decided we need to baby them a bit more, and we have returned to leaving the heat lamp on during these very cool nights. To plug in the heat lamp though, we have to keep their coop near the garage, which is delaying their move to the clover pasture. The clover is gorgeous, and so vibrant, but we will wait a few more days until they can enjoy it.

In the meantime, they have been going outside in a temporary yard near our garage, and tomorrow I will move the fencing so that they can eat down a new patch of greens. Our major accomplishment for the week is helping them learn to love the outdoors. During their first few outings, we had to herd them out and then stand in the door so they could not return to their familiar coop. Now when we open the door they all come rushing outside with a mild frenzy.

When they are feeling cool, which has been often, they like to cuddle together. When I check on them, I often find what looks like flotillas of chickens in the brooder. All these little heads pop up out of the flotilla to look at me curiously.