I've Gone Country A blog about a city girl learning a whole new world

Well….I don’t speak Spanish…but I tried to say…crazy chicken.

These girls act like they were raised in a barn.

This is what the coop looked like when I first got them.  I had fresh plants in the planters to welcome them to their new home.  

But they picked at their plants and knocked over the wheelbarrow until they broke the wheel off.

I fixed that and moved it over to MY front porch, with fresh flowers in it.

They either ate all the flowers and greenery off the plants or just sat on them….until they died.

Although that is frustrating….they are just chickens.

I will have to admit that it is pretty cute seeing them spread out, enjoying their porch.

Especially when I happen to pass by the coop and see one enjoying the rocking chair.

I walked by these girls when I went inside the coop to check for eggs one day.

There was not a single egg in ANY of the nesting boxes……

That was most unusual.

While I was inside I scooped some feed into one of the feeders, which is by the window.   This little lady began to give me a tongue lashing.  She made all kinds of chicken noises…..at the top of her little chicken lungs.

She kept peering at me through the window…..and then she would sound the alarm again and again.  She had that CRAZED look in her eyes!

I got tickled…none of them had ever acted like this before.  When I went back outside she had moved over enough for me to tell that she was sitting on some eggs.  She didn’t want to be bothered, so I left her alone.  I check the eggs daily….so I knew she couldn’t have been sitting long.  When I went back at bedtime….she was in the coop asleep with the others and the planter was full of eggs.  From what I read often one will lay in a nest and the others will lay there too.  I suppose she was wanting to hatch some babies….but I do not have the fencing for that right now….nor the patience.  Goodness, we were feeding baby goats at the time…..I didn’t need a yard full of baby chickens running around….not right now anyway.

However, if she had stayed on the eggs….you know I would have let her hatch them.  I would like to do that process one day…..just not right now.

Each day she and the others would lay their eggs in that planter….but each night they would all go into the coop, so I continued to gather the eggs.

The round planter became the popular hangout spot.

I don’t know how they could both get on that planter…. move around…. and not knock it over….

They made a king size mess.  Everyday I would sweep up the dirt, only to find the porch in the same shape the next day.  I didn’t want to draw predators to the coop by having the eggs outside like that.  So, I removed the planter….while they were running around in the grass one day.

On occasion I will still get one in the window box…..but for the most part….they went right back to laying inside the coop.  They seem to be alright.

I will have to say I was really glad….I felt like I was on an Easter Egg Hunt everyday there for a while.

I have plans to replant the boxes….maybe with artificial flowers.  Removing all the dirt…so no more dirt on the porch…maybe….just maybe….I can have that coop looking cozy again.

The other day the rooster came after me…..

Instinct told me to kick him away….and I did.  He did it again…I kicked again as I was backing away onto the porch.  He came at me again….I was kicking and screaming for Billy to help me…..  I sounded like a WILD Woman.  I had a little decorative brush broom hanging by the door.  I grabbed that and started trying to back him down.  All the while I was screaming for Billy.  But Billy never came.  The rooster finally let me scoot past him and I darted out of the fence.  When I walked into the house I asked Billy if he heard me screaming.  He said no…..ALL I CAN HEAR ALL THESE BABY GOATS SCREAMING TO BE FED!  And they were…they were screaming at the top of their lungs.  I had to laugh…it is like a zoo around here some days.

I suppose Roo was just protecting his girls….but he better watch it.  I can get that crazed look in my eyes too!

Matter of fact we may all may be a little wild and crazy around here….

but we have fun.