Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Snowed In

Hyacinth, Poppy and Iris (who should know better!) spent the night snowed-in their snowdome last night. Apparently, they were too freaked out by the snow to make the scary trip (all 5 yards) to Henbogle Coop.

Dan reported when he went out to shovel and secure the coop for the night that 2 of the girls were standing in the snow halfway between the snow dome and the coop, clearly attempting to fire a neuron and recall the way to the coop through the darkness and snow. Fortunately, Dan came along just in time to shoo them into the coop, but the other three were not departing the security of the snow dome.

All were were fine this morning. When they heard me coming with treats they came out to greet me. Poppy and Iris had a few beakfuls of treat then made a beeline for the preferred nestbox. Iris got there first, so Poppy stood on the edge of the box crowding Iris until I picked Poppy up and placed her in the next box. 10 minutes later, I had 3 additional fresh eggs, nice and warm.

Silly chickens. They are cute, but clearly have some challenges in the brain department.

6 comments:

Meg said...

Poor chickies! I don't think the chicken species got enough critical thinking skills to go around, sadly.

Anonymous said...

What's with those hens? I have always been so surprised how little they can see in the dark. I do have one girl, a Barred Rock, who is positively a night owl. Everyone is up on the roost and sleeping and she's still outside scratching around, well after dark. (And yes, she has spent a couple of nights outside, poor thing. But at least she was warm in her condo.)

So: I went to the dentist's the other day and I had three eggs in my pocket. Whoops. Am I the only person that happens to?? Tell me, Ali, Meg: do you accidentally leave eggs in your pockets, too?

Meg said...

Ha! Yes, I've got eggs in my pockets all the time. I get them from the nest first thing and then putter around the yard a little bit and completely forget about them. Two of today's eggs spent the day in the Jeep, because I had gotten to the train station before I realized they were still with me. oops! At least I've never broken one in my pocket, though I'm sure that day will come.

Ali said...

Oh, yes, I also have eggs in my pockets frequently, and unfortunately, I've broken one in my pocket, yuk and ugh! Fortunately it was my old corduroy barn coat pocket, which surely benefited from a wash.

Anonymous said...

I think I was on my hands and knees under the addition of a friend's house, trying to get seven hens and a rooster back to the hen house. They went underneath on a clear day, decided to stay over night and woke up to snow the next morning. Gotta love chickens!

True story - we were shopping at Circuit City in Bangor just before Christmas. I reached into my coat pocket and found an egg! Security workers were probably leaning in toward their monitors asking, "What? What is that? What does that woman have? It almost looks like....an EGG!" Gees!

Ali said...

At least up in Bangor, they probably can recognize an egg. Down in the NYC 'burbs, they'd have called in the bomb squad for sure!