Our little Sweet Pea, hatched in the coop at the end of June is moving up in the world. 

When we left for vacation a couple weeks ago she was just learning how to get up on a roost. She was on the lowest rung, trying to make herself invisible so the big hen next to her wouldn’t peck at her. 

By the time we got home she had found her way into the coop, to about the middle of the flock roosting wise. 

Then this week I was out in the coop one evening as it was getting dark and I looked up to see this:

She is up above the back door, just below the rafters, where the flock leaders perch at night.  She was just chirp chirp chirp chirping away – no effort to be invisible anymore!

Then the following night she was actually up in the rafters. 

It’s just amazing how fast these little animals grow. And Sweet Pea is confirming my belief that birds hatched and raised in the coop by a broody hen are more intelligent and adaptive than those raised in a brooder.

Now fingers crossed she will be a she and not a rooster. My husband keeps saying he thinks her precociousness is an indicator that she’s a rooster but I sure hope not!