the_yardening | Dec. 6th, 2009

My ladies have gotten very comfortable with my presence. I don't know if that's because I've spent so much time in their pen visiting with them, or if it is because they have finally figured out that "Good morning, ladies!" means: "FOOD!!!!..oh yeah...and that tall funny looking chicken that steals our eggs".

Either way there are now new challenges when feeding them: not tripping on a chicken and getting the scrap bucket emptied onto the ground instead of chicken backs.

Having fed the girls this morning, I then refilled their nest box/coop with fresh shredded paper (stealing today's egg at the same time), and decided to go ahead and, despite the drizzle, put another couple of wheelbarrow's worth of leaf litter into their pen.

My ladies may be used to me, but they do NOT feel at all confident about that big blue metal thing. So wheeling in the barrow full of leaves meant chickens scattering in a semi-hurry before me....

....and then around me and out the pen door.

Well, I thought, this could get interesting.

I put the wheelbarrow down and headed out to the entrance of the compost pen, which isn't finished, so has only one 4' layer of fencing and no gate, and placed the gate, on its side so it would reach, across the opening. They could, of course, easily hop/flutter over that (I've seen them hop higher than 4' to catch a moth foolishly taking a short cut through their pen), but I was counting on the compost keeping them busy. It had certainly gotten their attention.

Scratch, scratch, by the time I had the gate propped in place, they had flipped that compost open and were going to town on the bug buffet.

I managed to wheel three times in and out of the pen, each time carefully moving between them and the gate so as not to scare them out...then took the wheelbarrow out before returning to spread the pile of leaf litter around the pen.

Sure enough, the idea of fresh leaves to pick through for bugs proved too much for Top Chicken and she led the way back into the pen. The only chicken I had to go encourage back in was the Bantam, and since she is very much Poulty Non-grata with the flock, I can't blame her for wanting to stay out with the compost.

I'd let her, but I just don't have confidence in them not to go over the short section of the fence and then find themselves a helluva long way down from getting back in. 4' up and over.....12' down with a lot of branches in the way of direct flight back and a creek to land in.

I feel like a good chicken mom today. :)