You know you love your chickens when...

[Buckie quine]

I always say, I'm coming ladies every morning and night night girls. See you in the morning.

 

[chickrunfun]

- A personal peek into a fellow chicken lovers life -

Wake up before the alarm each morning to the first notes of "cocka doodle doo" send me out into the predawn chill in my boxers, muck boots, coat and towel to go into the chicken house and wrap Marlin the Magnificent up. Tell the cu cooing others we'll be back in a little bit, I bring him into the house so he doesn't disturb the neighbors. They say he's no problem but I'm guessing at 5...it may be another story. After I leave him in the bathroom, where he hops onto the counter to look at himself, he gives my beloved and patient wife his morning serenades...while she showers. Walk him back out at 6:30 and put him back in the chicken house with promises to everyone I'll be back shortly, and pop open their door to their "every creature on the face of the planet-proof coop"
After morning duties, make oatmeal...for them. Serve it up in cat bowls, add cracked corn, stir...blow on it so it's not to hot while I walk across the yard and after their coop door is let open...crouch down to have them mill around me to get "pasty beaked"...and smile when they use my pants or boots as a napkin. While the eat the remainder of breakfast, clean roosts, ladders, mini loft with proclamations of "Wow, you guys POOPED a lot last night!"
If rain threatens...RUN to usher them into their house and covered coop so they don't get saturated...thanks to "light rain" in Southern Florid
If it's raining already...save poor Tippy who's alway the one that gets stuck out in it, ending up under the trailer or the little shelter cu cooing miserably. Put her in my slicker and towel her off once we make it into the chicken house.

If it's cold...spend whatever time is needed to add extra bedding on the mini loft and stuff hay in front of the window and side vents so they'll be warm.
If working on the computer...or watching NetFlix (equally important) make sure the tab takes up half the monitor...so the other half can be for the camera so I can keep and eye on them. Hawks, cats and racoons in the area.
If sweet potatoes are made...announce at the table that all peels are not to be thrown out...they're for chicken snacks.If at a produce stand, hit the bin with the stuff about to be tossed out.
If the bedroom window's is open and they get up onto the little shelter and peek in....open the window so they can see what's going on.

If...any of this sounds spot on familiar to YOU...you may be a chicken lover

 

[nfrantz]

When you dress them up and have a Birthday party for them.

 

[ChatKath47]

You know I love my chickens when I clean their feet of straw and droppings every morning when I go out to clean the coop.

 

[ChatKath47]

We had a sudden bout of snow coming down pretty hard and though my three like to take cover under the arborvitae, I wanted to get them to their coop so they'd be protected from the snow. My husband put a metal roof over the whole chicken yard (it's a SMALL yard, 5x8), so I wanted to get them inside so they could be under the roof and heat lamp hanging outside, aimed at the entrance to the coop. I didn't see my girls from the window, so went to the back door, they were sitting on the patio, out of the snow, and was surprised they came to the patio because they don't like walking on the snow. They wouldn't follow me to the coop....so I picked up and individually carried each of them to their chicken yard and closed the door. I also took out some scrambled egg with oatmeal and pulverized egg shells - they're not laying yet, but had a good supply of their shells from this fall. They always love the oats and eggs mixture and seem not to mind the powdery shells. (Making sure they get their calcium!) They seem to prefere the oats in the scrambled egg as when I made a small bowl of oatmeal with hot water, when it was set out, it was so cold out there it became frozen oatmeal globs which they left. Today I cut up some red grapes and a quarter of a banana - boy did they dive into that! Watching them eat broken strands of cooked spaghetti is so amusing, they suck them down like worms!

 

[hollyanne0]

When you dress them up and have a Birthday party for them.

Awww that is adorable! How cute!

 

[hollyanne0]

You see this bed and think, 'I would get that for my kid and turn it into a coop when they outgrew it!!!' Lmbo

Love it!

 

[hollyanne0]

When you can't sleep late in the mornings because you know your chickens want to come out of the coop.

And this is exactly why I got an automatic chicken door! I am SO not a morning person! My chickens are up way before me! LOL
But I do make sure they are all tucked in safely every night!

 

[sirrahm]

When you share your last tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat.

 

[Raggedyroad]

When you clear the new snowfall in the wee hours of the morning from a large area around their coop, lay down straw and make paths all over the yard so they are comfortable enough to roam, scratch and peck.