The Case of the Curious chicken

The door motor arrived and The Man decided to install it while I was in town shopping for major groceries. He thought it would be a good idea to do it today since it was raining because he could work inside. Being the mother hen that I am I warned  him the chicks were still too young to go outside in the rain. They don't have all their feathers yet and they will catch a chill unless of course he wants to dry each one with my hair dryer when he gets finished. I also warned him that they would be gathering around his feet while he worked and I didn't want to come home to any crunched chicks. So his solution was to shoo them all over to the other side of the coup and temporarily tack up a piece of plywood to keep them there while he worked. Ya right.

First off they have discovered the out of doors and every time one of us walks into the coup they all run to the door wanting to go outside.They are very insistent about this especially the one I call Rose. Rose is a New Hampshire Red named after another chicken I had years ago. The original Rose was my gardening buddy. Always ready to help me in the garden she would scratch and dig right where I was digging or weeding and I would have to be careful not to cut off her feet with my shovel or step on her.

The new Rose is the one that was the first out the door when I opened it to let the chicks out for the first time. She is also the first one that wants to know what you are doing when you come within view. Apparently she has imprinted on humans because now she is a little pest. (See last post) Pictured at right.
So getting back to The Man and the door opener, he shooed the chicks over and put up the plywood and turned to start working on the door. When he turned back around there were 4 or 5 chicks sitting on the edge of the plywood "wall" watching him and Rose was standing next to his feet. This was great entertainment for house bound chickens on a rainy day. Having no other option he went ahead and finished the job of putting in the timer and automatic door opener being careful not to step on anyone. As usual the door required a test run when he was done. As soon as the door opened out went Rose. I believed he used the words greased lightening. The rest weren't as fast and he was able to shut the door before they escaped. Rose is just an opportunist. I wish I could have seen him trying to catch her when he was finished with the job.

For those who are interested I just discovered that Whidbey has a 4-H club that is sponsoring the first annual chicken coop tour. I am probably too late to enter the Palace in the tour but it has potential for a fun thing to do on a weekend and you get to support 4-H in the process. If you want to check it out here is the link. http://whidbeycoops.blogspot.com