EVENING RITUAL

As the sun dips low in the evening sky I step into my muck-boots and take some treats out to the girls.
I swear this is what happens every single night:
  
Daisy is the first to catch sight of me and sprints over to Lucy's side. She's a clever girl, Daisy. 

She knows I hand-feed Lucy on account of Lucy's being

virtually unable to walk anymore --- and Daisy wants what Lucy's gettin'.

Lucy gets her treat despite pesky little Daisy.

Then Pigeon curses and swears at me until I fill a little cup with feed and place it in front of her.

Inside her own private cup, she settles down to pecking and nibbling and talking to herself.


Then Lucy totters toward me and bumps into my boot.  That's her way of saying, "Pick me up."

So I do.   


She is capable of climbing the ramp into the henhouse, but why should she go to the trouble when there's a red sleeve that will take her up there?
  
....I always get a little thrill when Lucy perches trustfully on my arm.


Sometimes I fancy myself a Falconer--- the fearsome Barred-Rock clenching my gauntlet with mighty talons of death.... 

...so then I deposit Lucy at the top of the ramp, and she perches in the doorway for a bit.

Lucy fills the entire doorway with her tremendous girth, and she sits there until she's good and ready to move on.

A traffic jam forms.  The girls desperately try to squeeze past her this way and that way, but Lucy's titanic magnitude is impassable.  
Eventually Lucy moves on in, followed by Pigeon, Lil'White and Daisy, in exactly that order.


Fern is the last one in.  She dillydallies outside, oblivious.

She's busy eating dirt.
Yes, dirt.
No, I have no idea why.
When Fern eventually discovers that she's alone, she turns and scurries right up the ramp -


-- but she stops abruptly near the top....


for this little chicken knows


that somewhere inside....

lurks Lil'White.


With empty eyes and a cold dark soul, Lil'White makes it her business to torment Fern  in this way every night.  
She's good at it.  
Patiently she waits in the darkness.


Fern fidgets.
She panics a little.
She paces.


I leave Fern out there, terrified and terrorized, and trudge back to my house.
...but that's not the end of our evening ritual.
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A few hours later, teeth brushed and ready for bed, I go to the coop one more time in my muck-boots and pajamas.   
"Ferr-rn," I call gently.
"Br-br-br?," comes a lonely whisper from the shadows.

Too frightened to go inside, Fern has chosen to launch herself into the rafters above. There she waits to be rescued from terrible dark aloneness.
Fern grips my fingers with her little blue-black toes, and ducks her head as she rides my hand through the doorway and gets deposited on a roost inside.  
There's no attack from Lil'White this time because in the dark of night Lil'White can't see her victim.  
I withdraw my hand and listen to a little fluttering and shuffling in there, and then... the best part...  


I peek in at my little flock.

KIDS AND CHICKENS

Every kid...so totally unique.

Abby, here, passionately embraces Nature.
From the tiniest, creepiest --

-- to the hugest enormousest.


In my back yard, Abby has her own personal mission:

to rearrange the chickens.

Pigeon goes here...

Not sure where Lil'White should go...

Because she's speedy and deliberate, Abby's the only one of us who's able to catch fleet-footed Daisy.
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George, however, is so patient that Daisy steps right onto his hand.

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At my friend Trish's house, while she and I chatted on the lawn, 

her son Chris perched a rooster on his head and ran loops around the yard. 


Chris is a teenager now, and will be horrified to read this, but...  sorry, Chris -- that joyous image is forever etched in my memory.
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Lil'White has been Sarah's favorite from the beginning.

Sarah tenderly scoops her up,

and gazes lovingly into those vapid little eyes.
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Amanda came to visit, expressly to meet the chickens.
Pigeon seemed very curious, and followed Amanda all around.

So Amanda stopped and offered Pigeon some grass.  The two of them had a long, long conversation....

I wonder if it was Amanda's polka-dotty swimsuit that intrigued Pigeon so... 

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I've been doing some chicken-talks lately, and have come to look forward to chatting with the older folks at these events.   They're so happy to tell me of their favorite childhood chickens.  One woman told me she dressed hers up in a bonnet and wheeled it around in a baby carriage.   
Another lady innocently explained how she and her siblings made pull-toys out of their beloved hens:  
you just tie a string around a bit of bread, and then feed it....

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chicken socks

I would if I could, but I'm not the knittin' type.  So instead, I put some straw, leaves, pine bedding down on the snow and in the run, to protect those delicate little toes.


More ideas :


Winter can get pretty dull for your darling ladies.
While some folks have mentioned the cabbage-on-a-string treat, 
my gals turn up their beaks at cabbage.  
They prefer:

kale-on-a-string... see that little  S-hook?  
You can make 'em yourself:

Always good to have a handful of  S-hooks around,  to hang that kale on the side of the run,  

Apple-on-a-string has become a winter favorite of Lucy and Pigeon (make some little slices in the apple, and sink the twine into them, to hold it tight)...Hanging keeps it out of the dirt and poo.


You'll need your handy  S-hooks for these cups:

I use these soda-bottle-cups for extra water and food.   Easy to take away the dirty ones and put out clean ones.    Chickens need extra water in winter, and having it in several locations ensures that they stay hydrated.

Got some firewood lying about? 
Nothing's more exciting than a new log in the coop!

Molting birds especially benefit from a little extra protein:
Freeze-dried mealworms, cheese, black oil sunflower seeds, cooked oatmeal  (all healthy in moderation)


So treat your flock, and watch them adore you even more!


(Got a good idea to promote chicken-happiness?  Please share!)


Okay. Now back to writing  "Kids and Chickens"....coming soon-

PIGEON RULES

What are some important leadership qualities ?

Hm. 

Here's Pigeon, the leader of the flock, the day I met her.


Upside down.  


Skinny, bloody...  far from healthy.  
(click here to read more about Pigeon's beginnings)

After a few weeks of tender rehab, she did seem much healthier.  
She joined the flock and slipped herself right into the lead position vacated by our dear-departed-Hatsy.

But Pigeon, our new little leader, followed Lucy around like a puppy.

As it turns out, Pigeon is extremely nearsighted.  

In fact, she's darn near blind.

This explains why she's always underfoot. 

I've nearly stepped on her several times, 

and have to be careful not to chop off her little head 

when I'm working in the garden.

  

I offer her a tomato, and she pecks to the left of it.

Even when I toss her a wiggling worm, 

she has a tough time finding it... 

she's pecking to the left again.

...but that's okay.  

There's still Bravery and Smarts, right?

O.K.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

At the beginning, Pigeon was afraid of everything. 

She was afraid of worms. 

She was afraid of the sky.

She's still scared of Marky, but  tries not to show it.

So.  Maybe health and bravery aren't that important after all.

As for. .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  

Well, she's not the brightest bulb in the coop.
She's got a pretty average little pea-brain beneath that comb.  
I'd rank Daisy and Lucy as the smartest gals...


But hey, we've known leaders who have made it to the top despite even catastrophic stupidity.

So what is Pigeon's strength?

Compassion?

In a chicken?

Yep.

She shows it in so many ways.

She is very considerate of Lucy's challenges.

Lucy's an older lady who's had some really tough times.  And this year Lucy chose to molt in January....not the best time to be half-naked in New England.

So Pigeon stands beside her and keeps her warm while they nap.

And from her very first encounter with little Fern and Daisy, Pigeon has shown only kindness.

Here she stands near them and preens -- which, in chicken-talk, means "hi there- I'm not going to kill you"... of course, the chicks don't understand that yet. They're cowering in the corner, awaiting a painful death. 

But there's one particular moment of sensitivity that really struck me.....
It was last Fall.
I was offering a piece of clover to Pigeon and the little ones.

Pigeon looked up and saw Lil'White running toward the babies in order to murder them.  
While Pigeon had nothing to fear, she knew that the babies did.
She warned them of impending doom, and little Fern and Daisy fled to the forsythia in the nick of time.


It was a simple gesture.
But a true gesture of compassion.
  
I haven't seen sensitivity like that among dogs, or cats.... 
or in hundreds of hours of nature shows.     
But here it is -- in Pigeon.

Pigeon, honey, you rock.


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Now, I don't know whether it's compassion or curiosity or trust --
but Pigeon tends to be the favorite of all the kids who come to visit.

And that's a story for the next post!

.....Next post:     Chicken Socks

WHITEOUT

Blizzard 2010

 

Marky squinted with joy -- he's a certified snow-dog.

Lil'White watched as I shoveled the path. But she knows all about snow and how it feels on her little pink toes.  Once the door was opened, she retreated to the dry leafy depths of the coop.

Pigeon and Daisy paused a moment to take in the wonder of it all.
In a burst of excitement, Daisy launched herself across the yard, 

and was stranded.

Fern seemed confused.

Pigeon went exploring for a bit.

But Lil'White and Lucy fluffed themselves up and mustered their patience. They know it's a long way til Spring.