Everybody has survived winter on their heated perches. Ohmuhgosh I wish I had video of the first time I turned the girls out after the big snow. There was no way they were going out till some of the white stuff had melted away and patches of ground lured them from the doorway of the shed where they had been holed up since the storm. It was mighty funny watching them tippy-toe across the snow, wings flapping to keep their feet out of the ice, till they got to a bit of soggy dirt where they scratched around waiting for more pecking room to melt out of the snow.
Today the whole flock was out--even Millie--my teeny little girl. She's just started laying--small whitish pink oblong eggs--HUGE considering her size but dwarfed by the big girl's monster eggs. Millie still sleeps on a towel thrown over a chair in my dollie room. Eventually she'll sleep in the condo but she's the lowest member of the pecking order--and the smallest. Today was the first day she was out unsupervised. She hung out near Gimpy who sat in a pile of winter leaves sunning her tattered wings--not even flopping under the edge of the shed where she feels safe. She was OUT and she was staying OUT. Millie hid out behind her--big girls don't pick on Gimpy.
Chicky-baby is back to her sweet self after hatching out three peeps from eggs imported from the farm. The little roosters would be real happy to contribute to the backyard gene pool but they'd never sleep peacefully together in the same box again if they walked on the wild side. Poor boys watch lustily from behind wire as the girls peck around in the yard--admiring the full figured ladies from afar and wistfully pining for Millie who was part of their little flock till they started feeling their oats. Damned hormones!
This week I'll be starting spring cleaning--scrubbing out the condo and taking a pitchfork to the pen in the back. There'll be new straw all around and the whole place will be dusted (poultry dust). I'll clean out the shed and get the lawnmower out from under all the accumulated winter clutter. In a few weeks the insulation will come down so air can circulate better and the heat lamps will be traded for fans. We'll trade the misery of cold for the misery of heat.
