My chickens are mad. Complete lunatics. Utter nut jobs.
During the colder months I've been feeding the girls about 3ish so they are ready to roost with full crops by the time it's getting cold & dark. Now the weather is improving & the days getting longer I have been gradually extending feed time. It has not been appreciated! By 3 all the girls are milling @ the end of the coop where they know the feed bin is stored & as soon as they hear the lid rattle there is a great commotion. You'd think I starved them rather than issue generous amounts of top quality feed, treats & scraps!
Anyway our set up is I keep the treadle feeder topped up so there is food available almost constantly. Occasionally the girls get it right down to dust but normally there is still food in it & I just do a top up. However flock dynamics mean I need a 2nd station & I do Lottie & Tuppence separately. This means I enter the coop carrying the large tub for topping up & what's left is set down for the girls, & I have the smaller tub inside it for Lottie. The girls know this perfectly well ~ just like they know I will top up the feeder, then set down the large tub & only then perch on the door frame & call Lottie. Chooks like routine so I am predictable!
Well, those nutters had a collective brain fart the other afternoon. With the run fence collapsing it is difficult enough to negotiate into the pen without every chook I own milling underfoot but they've mostly got enough sense to not get stepped on. However this particular day Patricia, Suyin AND Ha'penny all decided they couldn't wait & flew up to perch on my arms for first dibs @ the food. ..@ which point Lottie decided they were eating her food so flew up to join them, only she perched on the tub rim & madly flapped her wings for balance! I couldn't see a thing. The girls on me were squabbling over who could reach the food. The ones on the ground where going ballistic because it wasn't fair they weren't getting anything & I was madly trying to disengage birds while not dropping the whole caboodle in a feathery mess!
There is a reason I didn't want lap chickens! How did this happen?