Tag: chickens are social

Turkey Tracks:  February 6, 2012

Chickens in the Window

Chickens are very social.

We are indoors a lot these days, winter being winter.  I love this time of quilting, knitting, cooking hearty foods.  It’s so restorative.

We’d get out more, but we’ve had a lot of ice with all the fluctuating temps melting the little bit of snow we have and then freezing it back into treacherous, mirror-like sheets of ice.  Two dear friends have already fallen and hit the back of their heads and are suffering with concussions and wrenched muscles.

Anyway, I can be working away at something in the quilt room or the laundry room, and I’ll get this feeling of being watched.  Sure enough, some of the chickens–or all of them–will be gathered in a window and looking at me.

Here are some chickens in the window earlier in the winter–before we had snow:

That’s Pretty Pierre to the left, the roo; Valentine next to him, a Freedom Ranger, and Rosie, a Copper Black Maran hen with beautiful neck markings.

If you talk to them, they crane their heads and, often, talk back.

Here they are not long ago–at the front door.  John was so enchanted he took pictures and sent out a Facebook entry about “the girls coming to tea.”

Don’t let anyone tell you chickens are dumb.  They’re not.  They know exactly how to get you to come give them some sunflower seeds or millet.  They know they’re sitting ducks in the snow, so stay in their coop.  And they know what to eat and what isn’t so good for them.

I love my chickens!  Even when they poop on all the porches.