Since the first time that I let my girls out I have let them out every night for about an hour before bed time – they seem to enjoy it so much that it’s hard for me to keep them locked up all night! The first time I let them out was pretty nervous for me and for them, but since then it has been a lot less stressful. Today I think the girls seemed a bit too relaxed – every time I turned my back for 2 seconds they were up to something!
Daisy Exploring the Patio
Before today, whenever I have let them out of the pen they have spent most of the time in the flower beds and on the lawn and pretty much stayed away from the patio. Today they decided to spend most of the time exploring the patio and the alley way down the side of the house which I found pretty stressful! When I let them out today I intended to sit in the house for half an hour and let them get on with it, but I changed my mind when I saw them trying to eat a scrap of silicon sealant that must have ended up out there when I got my patio doors replaced. I immediately went outside and got it off of them when I noticed they had found some more. I then spent the next 45 minutes chasing the chickens round the garden in a mad race to pick up all of the rubbish before they did! Before today I though my garden was pretty clean but the chickens are really good at finding rubbish. Most of it was left over from builders but a few bits had obviously blown over the fence.
When I finally got them to stop trying to eat bits of silicon and plastic they decided it was time to rampage through the patio knocking over flower pots! I ended putting all of the seedlings up on the bench so that the girls couldn’t get to them.
Towards the end of the free-ranging session a helicopter started hovering over the school field out the back – I think it might be related to all of the noise I have been hearing from there. Maybe someone actually broke in or something this time. Either way the helicopter seemed to really confuse the girls – while it was out they spent a lot of time standing still and looking around, trying to figure out where the strange noise was coming from. Once the helicopter disappeared it was starting to get dark and I was slightly relieved to see the girls go back into their run.
Rumaging Around in the Forget-Me-Nots
At lunch time today I came home from work because I was having some stuff delivered for the girls – I got a big bag of mixed corn and some dried meal-worms. These went down a treat – the birds seem to like the meal-worms more than they like the mixed bird seed that I have been giving them. The mixed corn was also highly successful as it seems to contain all of the bits that they like most out of the bird seed (and with no black sunflower seeds that they always leave behind).
One more thing before I go: I was reading the chicken forum at Down the Lane and someone made a post saying that one of their chickens has been producing sloppy, caramel-coloured poos. At least one of mine (the grey one) has also been doing this. On the forum they seem to think it could mean that the girl has got worms so I ordered some Flubenvet which is due to arrive tomorrow. I am going to worm them all as the sloppy horrible poo is difficult to clean up and smells disgusting!
I Think my Girls Might have Worms!