Oreo update

The Oreos are practically grownup now, or at least think they are.First, they graduated to the chickery, as all chicks do at about three days old.  That means a nightly grab and go from the chickery to a box in the greenhouse for the night.  So cute, with their little wing feathers coming in.  One is turning grey quite rapidly.Chicken selfie - Mom under one arm with a handful of chicks.Look at those beautiful little wings!Into the box.I throw a lid over them for the night and first thing in the morning, it´s an aerial transport back outside to the chickery.Then the rains came.I figured that the stuff growing in the greenhouse was big enough to not be threatened by one tiny hen and two chicks, so instead of bringing the chickery into the greenhouse, I just turned the three of them loose inside.Oh, what good times.I had a good time working in the greenhouse with my feathered company.  Non stop clucking and peeping.  The chicks just tweet tweet constantly.   Mom was quite fond of settling down on the edge of the wall like this, and I knew how the water level had been known to come up and pool in the greenhouse in heavy rains like this.In the dark I went out with a light, planning to set them on high ground or in a box.  I found mom and chicks not tucked against the wall, but on the very top of a mountain of straw, her personal Ararat.  She´s no dummy.The chicks got three whole days in the greenhouse, rummaging around in the straw, tugging on tomato plants, and scampering along the wooden baseboards.And then, suddenly, they integrated themselves into the greater chicken society.Luckily, I was outside with them when it happened.  As usual, I glanced over, checking for both chicks, and there was only one chick!  Mom was pacing against the wall of the greenhouse, starting to get distressed.  Where´s the other chick!!?(Music of doom): The chipmunk hole!I went outside.  There was the chick, walking up and down the path on the wrong side of the greenhouse wall!I tried to catch it.The chick quite smartly scurried into the shrubbery.  Well then, it´s time to be outside, I guess.Then I tried to catch Mom.  Phew!  That failed miserably, so I caught the other chick instead and introduced it to the shrubbery where it scurried off to join its sibling.Mom I had to chase and coax until she hopped out the door on her own, where the lovesick roosters were waiting for her, and she ran off into the wrong set of shrubs.  I did some more chasing, until she went into the same clump the chicks were last seen in.Good. I peered into the bushes looking for the happy family.  I could see her, but not the chicks!  I eventually found them - they were perched up off the ground on bent branches, already pretending to be real birds.At night I opened the door of the greenhouse and Mom came around and hopped back in.  This is where we spend the night.  The third night I came to let her into the greenhouse and.... just one chick hanging around underneath the coop.A: Wow! That´s got to be a first, a hen deciding to go to bed in a different place than the night before! Not only that, a coop she hasn´t slept in for months, in a new location.B: Here we go again with the nightly chicks left outside drill - but I was wrong!  As soon as I came around the loose chick started distress peeping, and mom popped outside immediately, bristling.   What´s going on out here!? The second chick popped out behind her. I hid behind a bush to watch. Both chicks gathered up again, she coached them up the ramp together (!!!!).  WOW!Never before!  First night!  On her own initiative! She deserves a good chicken mom medal!And I was worried she was a little inbred, with her head puff not as puffy as the others.  They´re actually getting smarter!Now the Oreos are right independent.  Mom opted to sleep in the small coop with the Brahma hens.  She takes the nest box at night with the chicks.(There´s jean jacket hen) - when it rains I have to make a few rain tents for everyone.  Mom and the Oreos are rather wild these days.  Hard to catch on camera.  I get distance sightings.So far so good.They´re often off on their own, in the pasture, roaming rather farther than the other hens tend to.Once I found the Oreos inside the pig zone, Mom running up and down on the outside of the electric fence.  The chicks had just slipped through it.She wasn´t alone!  One of the guinea cocks was pacing back and forth right next to her,  for all the world also worried about the chicks (!?!).  I was aghast, of course, at the situation, but the chicks popped right back through the fence when I came on the scene, and the guinea quickly resumed ignoring them all.  Different species.Next time Mom was on the inside, chicks outside, I don´t know how she did that, and as I approached, so did the pigs.  Terrified, she plunged through the fence, tangling her leg in it and shrieking.  The pigs came up - I was totally worried that they would harm her, but they only nosed her, curious grunting, as I untangled her to run off again.The Oreos are already getting up on their own in the morning, coming out before Mom, and running off from her.  They stick to each other like glue, though.Wild jungle chicks: