My wife and I just celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary yesterday - right in the middle of the second worst rainy day we've had this summer - many roads flooded in the Lake Charles area.. And tons of friends came anyway! Family and friends came in from California, Iowa, Florida, Texas and many places in Louisiana. Our five children, and all but two of our 19 grandchildren were here. (One just started college at Abilene Christian, and one had to report back to the Naval Academy.) My grandparents and parents, and my wife's parents had all celebrated their 50th, and we thought they were SO OLD when they did that...hahaha.
My 8 girls experienced an unusual day too - due to the almost continual rain - sometimes very heavy, I didn't let them out of the coop for the first time in 3 weeks. They are fully feathered, but I knew they would get soaked in a short time. I'm wondering what y'all do with your girls (and boys) on days when things are much less severe - that is on days when it drizzles most of the day. Are yours smart enough to know when to get out of the rain? There's no older members of the flock to guide mine, so I remain concerned about such conditions, which have been pretty common here this August.
One more thing - I've read and seen many pictures here of folks whose chickens allow them to held, and indeed seek out such attention. Starting about 2 weeks ago, one of my girls approached me after eating. I wondered if she thought I had something else to eat, or actually wanted attention. I reached out to pick her up, fully expecting to see her quickly shy away as all the others have, but she didn't move. I picked her up and she remained quite calm, even singing me a little song as I talked to her and stroked her feathers.
I was surprised, pleased and curious at the same time. Since then, she approaches me almost every day, and accepts this special attention. None of the others have demonstrated such behavior, and indeed shy away any time I touch them, or reach to pick them up. This remains a real curiosity to me as to why one will do that, but none of the others. All are RIRs, are the same age, and so close in color and size that I can't tell them apart. So, each time she has to approach me for me to know it is she. I want to do something to make her easier to visually identify from the rest of the flock.
Anyway, finished a late card game and about to fall asleep - remaining members of our family leave tomorrow - all good things must come to an end, sadly.
The blessings that God has given us are so overwhelming.
