The girls are one year old now, all three were hatched in March of last year.

Weren’t they just adorable, such tiny fluffy balls. If you wish to send birthday gifts the girls love live bugs, better over-night the package, so the bugs are as fresh as possible. For those in town, hand delivery of the live bugs would be best.

It is official now, they can be called hens. Until they are a year old, young chickens are technically called pullets. It is amazing how large they have become compared to the small chicks they were. Henny is so big and heavy now Denise can not get her hands around her to pick her up. The trick is to support the body with the fingers and use the thumbs to hold down the wings. If you don’t have a good grip and keep the wings folded to the body, you’re likely to get several feathered-wing beatings to the face. One would think that getting beaten by feathers wouldn’t be so bad, but it is not recommended.

Denise was successful in fencing off half the yard to keep the girls out of Andrea’s spring flowers and growing plants.  It does appear for now that the old saying that “chickens are not very bright” may be true.  Denise only had to put up fencing 2 feet high to keep them contained. So far they have not figured out they can fly or jump over the fencing, and their usual behavior is to approach the fence and attempt to go under it and then pacing back and forth with their beaks to the ground looking for a hole and a way through. But don’t worry the half of the yard they are confined to is very large and they have plenty of room to roam and look for things to eat.

One problem with the new set up is that the hens favorite dust bath area is now in the part of the yard off limits to the.  So Denise has to walk her chickens over for a dust bath and keep an eye on them so they don’t start roaming and getting into Andrea’s plants. They are very fond of their baths and run for the area once they are let into that side of the yard.  They spend about 1/2 hour rolling, flopping, kicking, pecking in the dirt to get it in-between all their feathers.

When they are done, Denise grabs her two hen-herding sticks (bamboo canes about 4 feet long), and with one in each hand she can guide the girls back into their pen. It’s more like sweeping chickens ahead of you.

Denise has come to the conclusion that Penny does rule the yard – the dog, cats, wild birds, squirrels, and Henny and Sky all get out of her way. And although no injuries have occurred so far, all of her subjects do not stick around to find out what she will do when she is headed their way with head down and focused eyes.

The girls are enjoying the warming days and wish you all a beautiful spring.