I did this morning what I usually do for them....food, water, gather eggs, and if it's sunny, prop open the door and turn off the heat (spoiled? yes, indeed). Today was only remarkable by a cabbage on a string (cabbage tetherball) as a treat and bribery/incentive from me to them for eggs, and a gorgeously sunny, but cool day.
Off I went on my errands, gone from the house until almost 1pm. Planned to get out to the birds asap once home, to gather more eggs and because I bought three huge bags of Layena and some scratch for them and all that needed putting away. I was in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw something on the back porch. Senorita Brownback!
Upon further inspection of the back yard, all my chickies were noted to be prancing about, picking at the thawing ground on the neatly snowblowed trails my husband keeps up all winter long.
Armed with a fistful of Cheerios, I tried to round them up (and count them!). I begged, pleaded, practiced a little fancy footwork thanks to the icy/wet conditions and finally got them all corralled. Noted huge hole in the fence. Noted that I noted huge hole in the fence WEEKS ago, but it didn't look like a hole a chicken would notice, and they didn't for a while--so I never fixed it. Lesson learned.
It's fixed now and they gave me all of their very unsolicited opinions about my repair job while I was completing it.....mouthy gals.
So, they got some exercise today, I got some exercise, lugging all their food and treats back to the coop and they finally finished the cabbage tetherball. All in all, a good day. Oh, and 15 eggs out of 18 hens. Sa-weet!
Off I went on my errands, gone from the house until almost 1pm. Planned to get out to the birds asap once home, to gather more eggs and because I bought three huge bags of Layena and some scratch for them and all that needed putting away. I was in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw something on the back porch. Senorita Brownback!
Upon further inspection of the back yard, all my chickies were noted to be prancing about, picking at the thawing ground on the neatly snowblowed trails my husband keeps up all winter long.
Armed with a fistful of Cheerios, I tried to round them up (and count them!). I begged, pleaded, practiced a little fancy footwork thanks to the icy/wet conditions and finally got them all corralled. Noted huge hole in the fence. Noted that I noted huge hole in the fence WEEKS ago, but it didn't look like a hole a chicken would notice, and they didn't for a while--so I never fixed it. Lesson learned.
So, they got some exercise today, I got some exercise, lugging all their food and treats back to the coop and they finally finished the cabbage tetherball. All in all, a good day. Oh, and 15 eggs out of 18 hens. Sa-weet!
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