Defend and Gather

Our chickens are now very great little egg layers. We are getting 3-5 per day, which adds up quickly! They are the nicest bunch of hens I have ever had... except for Lemondrop. Lemondrop was our friends' chicken, who became too big for her britches and got kicked out of her coop for bad behavior. It seems she is quite the bully. We suspect gender issues. Anyways, we took her in so that she could be the new hen on the block and hopefully get a rude awakening on how not to play with others. At first, it worked. Our hens kicked her cute little buff orpington hieny. However, she learned how to escape from the pen... saving herself from the onslaught of pecks from our tight knit little flock. Now, she mostly roams the yard, chasing the boys down and pecking their feet. She is back to her bullying ways, but since she isn't able to bully the other chickens, she saves it for us. She has even been known to meet guests in the driveway and peck their shoes. I don't know what she is so mad about. At least she has a name. We talk about the chickens as "the rhode island reds, the barred rocks and Lemondrop".

Lemondrop has caused the boys to revamp their chicken chores. Each week, one boy has to water the chickens each day while the other feeds them and gathers eggs. The next week, they alternate. Well, now that Lemondrop acts as our attack chicken, the boy who is in charge of watering also has to take a broom (or a water gun, depending on the weather) and act as the "defender" for the egg gatherer. It is hilarious watching them truck through the yard, one as the defender and one as the gatherer. Usually, they then bust through the door and exclaim that they have "triumphed!". Rarely, the battle is too great and they have to try again later.

Yesterday, Jeff took the boys to go buy more chicken feed. While there, they played with hundreds of little baby chicks. If Jeff had gone solo, this wouldn't have been such an exciting day. However, Asa went... and fell madly in love. Jeff called me and I could hear Asa in the background, buzzing and vibrating with excitement over the baby chicks. We had previously talked about getting a few more chickens as replacement chickens for when dogs attack or one gets out and wanders into the road or what have you, but I didn't expect to start from "scratch" with babies. However, Asa's cuteness and excitement was so convincing, that I gave the okay for him to bring a few home. Now, we have four baby chicks living in our utility room. Living in our utility room, riding around in dump trucks... you know, chick stuff.