Looking through my photographs, I note a lack of recent chicken pics - the content leaning more toward flowers, dogs and bumble bees.
Chickens, in the past few months, typically appearing only as small red accents in the background:
This is the single proper chicken portrait that I found - notable for being the exception:
Perhaps I am over-analyzing, but I can’t help but interpret the expression in the hen’s face as somewhat accusatory.
She might be picking up on my recent frustration regarding the “new girls” clever trick of flying over the dog yard fence, foraging in the vegetable garden, and not returning until/unless caught (always a kerfuffle).
The two hens in the foreground are part of the Original Five, who - for whatever reason - have never exercised their natural ability to escape from the dog yard. For months, they have happily foraged within the perimeter, annoying only in their unfortunate habit of defecating on the back porch.
(A quick note here about chicken poop: it is SO STINKY when fresh, just awful - though, I once experienced a cat poop that had me in a panic looking for a gas leak, so not as bad as all that, but still… - REALLY nasty smelling, and woe betide if you bring it into the house on your shoe. However, dried chicken poop? You could probably harvest it to use for decorative pebbles to display on a window sill, with not a trace of odor - though, admittedly I have never tried this.)
So for quite a while, we have been living with Easy Chickens. Uncomplicated, unchallenging. And I have come to consider their cost and care a very fair exchange for the entertainment and delicious eggs they provide.
But now, since the New Girls (the three blurry figures lurking in the background) have taken to flinging themselves into forbidden territory on a daily basis, the entertainment value of the flock has significantly diminished. We, in other words, are not amused.
For the moment I have taken to keeping the whole flock locked up in the formal coop yard (walls too high to easily clear), until I either add height extensions to the dog yard fence or send them all to the farm.
In the meantime, I consider the value of all those beautiful eggs…
