dirt bath and other shenanigans

Chocolate’s out of the chickery now too.

This is great. All the small chicks with moms are at large, meaning I don’t have to constantly monitor do they have shade, do they have water? Their moms take care of that now (lots of water options). Soon enough there will be another round of chicks hatching.

She’s diving right into the dirt bath.  There’s two popular spots at the moment, an old pig wallow, and this one under the corner of the hen rain tent, which is a bit of a sauna in the sunshine.  

The dirt she’s spraying  is sticking to the condensation on the roof.

Guineas  when they’re not aware they’re being watched.

Oh, last night! I went to open the door for guinea bedtime, and I didn’t see them so I hollered Galahad’s name.  I saw him pop out of the woods by the pig fence, quite far away, periscoping.  I’m like “Hello!  Over here!  Yoohoo, I’m here to open the door”, waving,  like over a crowd at an airport.

In the moment, this sort of thing – waving at and calling a bird – feels rather silly.

Galahad launched into the air, as did all the keets behind him, and flew in to me.  A little cloud of keets inbound.  They fluttered down to land at the coop and I stood back for them to scamper through the door of the greenhouse for bedtime.  Thanks, human.  This bird is incredible.  

Cotton’s  chicks exploring out of the box.

Big pathway pileup.

Perchick became the most recent “wildlife” to hop in the open door of the house, casually jumping up on the doorstep and poking through the screen door to look at me.   Hey.   So, yeah.  Got any snacks?  I was peeling peaches and didn’t get up.    She rummaged through a basket by the door, ignoring my remonstrations, and then casually left.  No snacks.  Chickens haven’t strolled into the house that I know of since the episode with the dried beans last year (maybe they do it all the time when I’m not here).

The young teens (the Famous Five/Pufflings) and the tweens have formed an alliance to mount an assault on the bird feeder (there’s nothing in it).

Recon complete, moving in.. . ckkk… ground support in place … ckkk… on final approach. .. ckk ….