It cracks me up when I see the chickens dust bathing. They shake, and roll, and lay in odd positions, all to get the dirt down into their feathers and dislodge oils and critters. Even funnier is when two chickens are trying to dust bathe in the same spot. Here’s a video.
Apparently I really do find it funny, here is a video from 2 years ago. It is probably the same two hens warring over dust in the same spot.
One of my neighbors brought my chickens a pumpkin! The surprise in this is that it is a fall pumpkin. It sat on a hearth inside all winter and was in perfect condition, without bleaching or other chemical coatings.
I broke it open for the chickens and they tucked in (once they were done begging for grubs).
My chickens have a routine. They come out of the coop to eat and forage when the sun comes up and the automatic door opens, but then they go back inside the coop to hang out several times a day. There is water inside, but no food. Sometimes they go back to the roost, but at around 2pm each day they hunker down on the opposite side of their building. I guess this is nap time. I heartily approve of nap time, especially for me. I do try to avoid doing my daily checks and chores during this time. I know how I feel when I get a call as I’m trying to catch a few afternoon Zs.
Yup, spring. And a wetter spring than we’ve had in a few of years. We have a bumper crop of henbit, with its pretty purple carpet, in our meadow as well as throughout the countryside and town lawns (the ones that go natural, at least).
It was easy to pick a handful (for at least the past two years it wasn’t), and offer a snack bouquet to the chickens.
This is the time that I get a little wistful that my hens can’t free range the meadow, but I haven’t done a metal sweep of the whole meadow, oh, and there is the plethora of predators. There’s that. Everything likes to eat chickens.
Then hens are laying eggs again! (And I can’t help the sound track in my head of “We’re in the money”, even though the price of keeping the chickens is far above even the current cost of a dozen eggs.)
It has been four months since my hens have laid an egg. I saw one do the ready squat the day before I found this nugget in the nesting box. Admittedly, I do not make them into production machines by giving them more light in the morning, so their winter laying break is a long one. The hens are also going into their third summer, which is past a production bird’s peak performance, and eight hens lay enough for my family and the occasional gift of a dozen. I don’t get enough to sell regularly.
Still, it is nice to have fresh eggs again, knowing where they get their nutrition.
Critters and Craft 