Soup, Sally, Jensen and Concrete are fully feathered now so this weekend we will need to provide them with an outdoor run. I have the wire and the stakes ready to go but I keep forgetting to soften up the ground so the stakes will pound in. I’m not 25 anymore and have to respect my body more these days if I want it to last! The girls seem very happy in their roomy hen house so I’m not too worried, there is some room to run and lots of places to hop up on and roost. We keep it clean and give them grass clippings and treats to play with. In another month or two when they are fully grown, it could get ugly. Overcrowding leads to hen pecking, just check any high school if you want to see what that looks like. Standard pre-teen and teen behaviour! And they think they are being so original.
We introduced the chicks to the apricots that fell to the ground and they were very enthusiastic in snapping them up and fighting over them. This was new to my grandaughter, her docile friendly chickens all of a sudden became pecking monsters! I let her know that in the future, she cannot combine cuddling her feathered friends with food. Not without a serious pecking or two!
They are still too young to break the skin of any other fruit we have given them. Apples were a challenge but apple cores, chicken fight! There was plenty to go around, really ladies, show some class! I made some yummy blackberry jam last night and wasn’t satisfied with the texture. I pulled out my sieve and ran the jam through it to get as much of the pulp out as possible allowing only about one cup of the seeds into the jam. The rest of the seeds will go to the chickens. The jam tasted yummy and I called home to find out how it set up but was met with, not now grandma, auntie is dying my hair red. K…… does your mother know? “yeah, she said it’s only hair.” I can see her point of view in a day and age when kids have so much trouble available to get into. Hair is not forever. Back to School should be interesting. I’ll have to wait until I get home from work to find out how the chickens enjoyed the seeds.
Tessa Bertoldi 