the hens' latest thing

We often let the hens out in the afternoon.  Despite the size of their yard (it’s has a bigger footprint than our house), they gang up inside the gate as we approach in anticipation of their release.  They peck around in the grass outside their fence, and work their way up to the bird feeder to forage for sunflowers seeds.  Then they’ll make a circle around the house and on their way back to the coop.

I was surprised a couple weeks ago, when I saw a hen coming out of the fir grove near the street.  It’s not an encouraging development, if they’re that far from the house, they might attract a neighbor’s dog into our yard.

So this weekend, I played poultry gumshoe, and kept track of the hens as they fanned out across the yard.  Sure enough, half a dozen, the alpha clique, made their way past the bird feeder, across the lawn & down the hill through the trees.  They came to the fence next to our neighbor’s raspberry patch.  I’ve been mulching leaves there for several years to kill weeds along the fence.  Somehow, word about the worm-rich soil has spread through the flock, so the flock flocks to the fence to feed ;-)

Like me, the hens are easily bored, so they were soon strutting back up the hill.  No dogs were alerted on this day.  The hens roosted up as the daylight waned, I latched the gate, and collected the eggs that had magically appeared again in the nesting boxes.

Coo, coo, ca choo.