The strangest thing just happened with the chickens! Matthew was putting Row to sleep, and I tucked Killian in and went to the living room. On my way I heard the chickens outside peeping and chirping their heads off in a way I have never heard them do before. I went over to the screen door (the slider was open) and looked out to see what all the fuss was about. All 5 were circling the coop, looking up and squawking like crazy. I figured that a bird had flown by low and that they thought it was on top of the coop. I called out the door "Whats the matter you guys?" and they all ran as fast as their little legs could carry them to the sliding door, where the squawking intensified. Thinking there was something on/in the coop that I couldn't see, I walked outside to the end of the deck, and those chickens were practically glued to my feet. I have never ever had them act like this before, so I was really mystified as to what was bothering them. I walked over to the coop to look in from the front, and again, they were under my feet the whole way over. I couldn't see anything on/in or around the coop, so I crouched down in front of it and started talking to them again. The craziest part is that Freckles and Scrappy (who are the very hardest to catch, and make a huge crazy fuss when you do catch them) were practically trying to climb in my lap. I sat there petting them, while they got louder and more intense with the chirps and calls and suddenly I noticed that they would call, and then look up at their coop and then back at me. All of a sudden, it hit me. There wasn't anything that had scared them or hurt them....they just wanted to be put away for the night! Sure enough, as I crouched in front of their coop, they let me pick them up one by one (no struggling) and set them in their coop. It was the easiest time I have ever had getting them in there at the end of the day. I put in their food and water and some scratch and they shut right up and settled in. Freckles even hopped straight up onto their roosts, which we just put in this weekend and haven't been able to get them to use. I am just so amazed that they were communicating so clearly what they wanted, and the silly human took forever to figure it out. At least I know now that if I wait long enough at night, they will be really easy to put away!
A few minutes later Matthew and I were in the kitchen and heard lots of loud awful squawking....we went outside, and discovered that it was a free for all fight for roost space. Even though they have two 4 foot roosts, apparently they all wanted to squeeze onto the last 10 inches of the top roost. Things were okay in this first picture, just a lot of pushing going on:
But then Scrappy decided that she needed to get up, and not just anyplace was going to do (she is the yellow one in the top right corner):
That's right, the only place she wanted to be was right. on. top. of everyone else. Indanee (who's tail feathers you see below Scrappy) was hollering like crazy and finally managed to shake Scrappy off her back. She was NOT pleased! *click on the pictures to make them bigger*
While I write this, I can still hear them outside working things out. They are so silly sometimes! Speaking of silly, check out the new coolest place to nap:
A few minutes later Matthew and I were in the kitchen and heard lots of loud awful squawking....we went outside, and discovered that it was a free for all fight for roost space. Even though they have two 4 foot roosts, apparently they all wanted to squeeze onto the last 10 inches of the top roost. Things were okay in this first picture, just a lot of pushing going on:
But then Scrappy decided that she needed to get up, and not just anyplace was going to do (she is the yellow one in the top right corner):
That's right, the only place she wanted to be was right. on. top. of everyone else. Indanee (who's tail feathers you see below Scrappy) was hollering like crazy and finally managed to shake Scrappy off her back. She was NOT pleased! *click on the pictures to make them bigger*
While I write this, I can still hear them outside working things out. They are so silly sometimes! Speaking of silly, check out the new coolest place to nap:
