Chickens’ night out

The weather has been so hot and dry and because I am such a procrastinator, the Gallus Palace yard has not yet been fenced. I dug five or six holes several weeks ago and even bought the posts and the cement, but the fence gnomes have been on vacation and the chickens refuse to do it themselves, so I guess I will have to get back on that project soon. In the meantime, we have decided that we can let the chickens out for a romp around bed time and they won’t wander too far off. If we time it right, they will run around, do a little flying/hopping, scratch and peck and chase each other around for a half hour and then return to their roosts for the night all by themselves.

We make this our happy hour: pull out some chairs, get a drink and maybe some chips and salsa and sit and watch the ‘chicken show’. This may be something only old fogies like us can relate to, but to help the younger generation relate, let me frame it another way. It’s like a real live screen saver on the biggest wide-screen TV you could imagine. The actors, the soundtrack, and the sunset are different every night and it’s entertaining and peaceful at the same time.

There are currently 15 birds in the palace: two roosters and 13 hens and all is still copacetic. The roosters are just beginning to crow and not bossing the hens around too much, and more importantly, not fighting with each other. Duran seems to be the boss, but that doesn’t seem to bother Big Red at all. We are still weeks away from getting eggs, but with six nest boxes we are surely ready when they start laying and even move some more hens into the palace.