Ok, done answering posts, now time to ramble...
I opened the brooder coop door this morning, and everyone came flooding out
I guess they caught on quick that it is much more fun in the front yard/flower garden than in the run.
I also let the pullets out again today - it certainly makes morning chores a little easier when I don't have to step over chickens to try to feed them.
One of the calves dang near broke my thumb this morning. It has a bruise on the side of it (the end joint, right at the bone) - might be cracked, sure does hurt. Luckily it's my left hand thumb, so it doesn't interfere too much with typing
I also need to make a post under Geese - I need toy ideas for the terrible threesome. I did discover this morning, however, that I can distract them from trying to take my shirt off with fresh green beans offered from the one vine that survived the chickens and ducks. They like the green beans because they can pinch and chew them and no one yells in surprize or shakes a finger at them. Plus they taste good
They think I am Mama, so whenever I am outside, here they come - if I walk out on the porch, and they see or hear me, Fred lets out a Honk so loud, the neighbors probably hear it, then they come running and flapping their wings
Whatever is mine is theirs, they figure, so my lighter, my shirt, my jeans, skirt, my fingers, my shoes, anything attached or looks like it ought to be attached to me is fair game. Even the chair I am sitting on.
Everything has to be thoroughly chewed on and tasted, to see if it is squishy or hard or yummy. Lucy is the bravest, and loves to play "who's got your nose, er.. bill" rather. She gnaws on my knuckle and I grab her bill, then she pulls free and gnaws my knuckle some more, then I grab... well, you get the picture. I don't grab it hard, and she knows I won't
she's just playing with mama - problem is, she bites hard when it's her turn
I have to make sure it's a knuckle she has and not a fleshy part of the finger. This game is fun, for awhile, but she wants to play it constantly
and then she'll come up behind me when I'm not looking and try to play the game with my backside, sometimes. She's not being mean at all - and if I were to tell her No and shoo her away, she goes no problem.
I just need more distractions for them. And not the kind where poor Mr. Feathers loses tail feathers, like yesterday - he passed too close and Fred stretched out and snatched a few off him. When Mr. Feathers squawked, Fred took off running with the feathers in his bill and trying to honk at the same time
I think they scared each other
They only do this to me, but are beginning to get brave with Hubby, too. They probably figure if we are together in the yard a lot, then he must be ok, too - and maybe he tastes better than Mama does....
meri
