The weather has been warming ever so slightly as Utah continues to wallow under high pressure. The results are varied.
One...we are still stuck with this, even nastier air than before
Two...zero precipitation. The snow recedes in my backyard. My natural barrier for the chickens is gone. The last 4 days they have been pecking on my window and leaving the goey evidence plastered to my deck.
Just when I began to feel slightly favorable to the birds, the children are so delighted to come out to the hen house in the morning and find this....
We even cooked our first fresh egg. Although it was a little difficult to stomach, considering we have been virtually egg-free for 6 months. I'm still trying to decide what to do with these eggs. We will see how many we actually get. I think only one hen is currently laying. Maybe two, since today we had a speckled egg, and 2 days ago just brown.
But the poop was more than I could handle. We headed to the hardware store last night. Yesterday was my little hens last day of overrunning my backyard.
A little green wire fence and few posts allowed us to easily construct a simple, and very discreet run. Right now it is temporary, until we know it will keep the hens inside. It was a family effort to round up the chickens and put them in their new home.
Anna, who heads up the pecking order was distraught by her captivity. She paced for hours along the fence, poking her head in and out searching for an out. After several hours we did find her happily pecking away on the grass. Brent wove some branches to stick straight out above the fence as a deterrent. So far so good.
I feel this is a real turning point in our relationship. Snicker all you want. Brent and I both spent a good portion of the day being entertained by our little hens in their pen. Secretly, relishing our roles as conquerors. We have taken back our yard. Anna however seemed so distraught we had to do something to ease the pain of captivity. For the first time they feasted on table scraps. These chickens were in heaven.
An Allegory to Life?
Brent decided we had created our own communist regime in the backyard. He rehearsed an entire allegory relative to our chickens and their loss of liberty. How easily they were distracted from the fences when delicious food was hand fed to them, the need to work vanished. Brent actually came inside chuckling in a diabolical fashion, knowing soon our chickens will be fat and happy in captivity and we are in charge of our domain. And theirs! Ha, ha, ha....
....that is, unless they prove to have more fortitude and desire than we anticipate. Only time will tell.
1 comment:
you could have the girls sell the eggs. I bet they would love that!
Post a Comment