Fun before bedtime

Last night after I had done my evening clean up chores, I decided to dig the run over for the girls. They love following me with the fork as I turn up some worms for them. After we have finished they love to scratch and peck away at the freshly turned soil. They look completely absorbed in their search and I wonder what they find. Do they find tiny bugs or is it just bits of grit. They do appear to carefully select just the right bits of grit.

Digging and pecking

I love chickens comedy feet. Look at Dotty’s feet on the right of the photo, they make me smile.

The girls scratch and peck

Dotty has comedy feet again!

Look at Dotty in the middle with her pigeon toes.

Amber studies the ground

Look at the concentration on Ambers face as she studies the ground. The girls continued to do this until in unison they come up to the patio for a top up of food and lots of water drinking.

Then they all take their places to roost before I come and put them in the coop. Bluebell was first to go and sit on my little chair which hangs under the roof. I am sure this is just so that the bantys can’t get there as it was their favoured spot. Pepper and Dotty are next to settle on the big perch. Finally the little girls go up on to the storage cabinet.

I went back out to them at quarter to nine and the automatic coop door started to close at ten to nine. The nights are really drawing in now. I have just looked back at last years blog and the girls started going back in to the coop on their own in September so it seems it may be another month yet. Maybe it is the colder evenings as well as darker that effects them. I do hope they do start going in on their own like last year. I am sure they will but time will tell.