My little chicken flock like to help me with my morning clean up. As I move around picking up the poop, they follow me. Yesterday as I ducked under the big perch to clean up in the corner, I had Dotty watching from the perch above me, Pepper facing me and trying to see what was in my gloved hands, Bluebell pecking at my sleeve to make sure I knew she was there and Treacle on my back helping me most of all! It’s so much easier to clean up a chicken run with a helpful chicken on your back!
Lately at any time that I bend down, Treacle is on my back or shoulder in an instant. Sometimes I am cleaning or sometimes I am talking to Pepper or trying to take a photo and she is straight on to me. My husband says she seems to think she is an overgrown parrot! It makes cleaning up quite tricky.
Pepper also looks like she really wants to jump up too. Pepper now pays me more attention than the other three and as she used to be so skittish, this is so lovely and she is such a sweet girl. Tonight she looked like she really wanted to jump on me so for the first time in ages I sat on my little chair as I thought perhaps she needs a proper lap to sit on rather than me just crouching down. You would have thought it was feeding frenzy at the zoo except without the food! Treacle was straight on my lap followed by Bluebell. I stroked these two and they filled my lap. Dotty didn’t know where to go so jumped on to my head (not ideal, luckily she is the lightest) and poor Pepper just didn’t know how to get up too. She kept rocking as if about to jump but couldn’t find a space. Where is the camera man at these priceless moments?
The thing I love about this sort of crazy interaction with my girls is that there is no treat on offer, they just seem to want to be on me and I love that. I never thought I could love these chickens so, so much! I love that they all have such different personalities and they want to be around me. I know they are always looking for a treat but they follow me around for half an hour every morning while I clean up and they want to sit on me every evening before bedtime (Treacle wants to be on me any time she possibly can), Pepper wants to talk to me face to face at any time and oh, it’s so wonderful. I love these girls so much.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
I love your chicken stories! I am raising my first little flock this year and love them as much as you do yours. The pictures of your chicken run area are fascinating! Could you make a post that would be a little tour of it. I think I need to nab some of your great ideas!
Wow, thank you. I followed a few chicken blogs for a couple of years before I took the plunge myself and used some other peoples ideas in my set up. I also found that we still keep making improvements because we learn as we go along. I am always trying to make the run better for my girls.
I will incorporate a tour of my set up in one of my next posts. Chickens are impossible not to love!