Comic Relief

My morning is always brightened by the emergence of my chickens from their coop.  They come streaming out of their little doorway and flap like they are about to take off for parts unknown.  They then swoop out the gate and onto the green grass, almost tripping over themselves in their eagerness to bite off a blade of grass.  After the first few bites they will start to fan out in various directions and I notice that there are always leaders and followers as they spread across the lawn.  There are a couple of loners as well, one in particular is in love with a little corner of the lawn that she thinks I won’t spot when I call out “back to the circle, girls, back to the circle”.  She huddles between the shed and the rain barrel and trust that the gooseberry bush will camouflage her little brown feathers.  But I’ve got her number and use the corn broom to wiggle her out.  Little devil.

Frederica, Amber and Hermione all try to charm me into letting them stay out longer by doing The Huddle.  The Huddle is when they set into a little squat and invite me to pat their back and touch their wings, after which they assume they are at liberty to return to the greener pastures outside The Circle.  But I sternly encourage them to move on and they will reluctantly flutter down into the area known as The Circle (just outside the coop).  Here there is another little dickens who likes to hide in the corner behind the downspout but unfortunately she makes so much noise she is instantly caught and told to move it along.

Once they are returned into the run they go about their collective business of pecking up bugs, dirt and other curiousities until it’s time to call them to their treat of seeds mid-morning.  Then they come flying out of their nesting spots and look as though I am their forlorn hope.  What could be more heartwarming than that?