After taking Thursday off, the first of the Reds to start laying (I'm thinking of naming her Eve for obvious reasons) presented another egg this morning. At least, I think these are all coming from the same hen. It's just a matter of time before the others follow suit.

Yesterday afternoon was nice and many of the chicks - now 7 weeks old - finally ventured outside for the first time. They enjoyed scratching around, but a lot of them were just acting crazy, sorting out who is dominant over whom. They'd stretch up and almost body slam each other, raising their hackles. They'd run at each other, keeping their heads low. They'd leap in the air like ninjas, flapping for extra height before coming down almost on top of one of the others. Think The Matrix with chicks.

The highlight of the day was when one of the Reds wandered back into the barnyard during all of this. They were all out foraging in the yard, which was great for letting the chicks sort their personal pecking order. Otherwise, the Reds would have picked at the chicks and sent them running.

In any event, one of the Reds came wandering back into the barnyard at about the moment when one of the Red Sex links charged one of her peers, doing that running and flapping thing. The Red was so shocked that she turned and ran out of the barnyard.

Score one for the chicks.

Am also wondering if the aggressive Wyandotte known as Jean-Bob is perhaps a rooster. JB doesn't seem to have as much silver factor as the others and is still mostly black (except for the head now). JB still exhibits behavior that is more aggressive than the other Wyandottes. And JB's facial features are much more colorful, more red than the others. The potential roo dubbed Rocky seems kind of wimpy by comparison. It'd be funny if Rocky turned out to be a hen and Jean-Bob the rooster. But then, such things have been known to happen in the chicken universe.