Wet Hens

Chickens aren’t known for being terribly brilliant but I don’t think they’re as dumb as most people think they are. They know if I walk out of the house with a bowl in my hand, chances are . . they’re going to get a treat and they will come running. They aren’t worried about Rita when she comes near the fence, but they’re apprehensive when our friend’s dog comes near the fence on their side of the orchard. They watch for low hanging fruit and have learned to jump and peck and jump and peck and eventually, they’ll knock the fruit to the ground. So, they aren’t completely stupid.

When we had chickens in MO, I often wondered if they remembered from one winter to the next that snow was a miserable mess. I doubt that they remembered. Heck, Vince says I’ve forgotten how much I complained about it. I keep telling him that when he retires, it will be totally different. MO doesn’t get so much snow that it lasts all winter. We might get snow on Monday and by Wednesday, it would be gone, then it might snow again the next week. In retirement, we wouldn’t HAVE to go anywhere so . . when it snows . . just stay home!  Wait til it melts . . sounds simple enough to me.

Back to the wet hens . . it so seldom rains here that I wonder if chickens even remember what rain is like from one time to the next.

Wet Chickens

When I went out to let them out the last few mornings, it was drizzling . . not raining but just a slow drizzle. We’ve had less than 1/2″ of rain in two days. A couple of chickens start to walk out of the coop, feel the rain, turn around and go back inside. Then a couple more come out and feel the rain and they go back in. I keep telling them  . . it’s just rain . . I’m out in it! Come out and enjoy it! But, they don’t listen. Eventually they get brave and go out and then they figure out that little worms are coming to the surface and grasshoppers are really active and suddenly, they’re loving the rain.