Freedom

This Saturday was not only important because of the football you know, the girls had a very important day as well. Their first day of being allowed out, free to roam around the garden. Firstly, the gorgeous one and I had to clip their wings (well one wing anyway). He put a chair by the coop and explained to me where I needed to cut - ah, I was the one doing the cutting was I? Mabel first. She's a very placid chicken really and let the gorgeous one pick her up and allowed me to clip her wing with hardly a cluck. Yoko next and a few clucks but not too much difficulty either. Omelette however, wanted everyone to know how upset she was and clucked and fought not to be picked up, but we got to her eventually as well.

The three of them stayed by the coop initially but after a while got more adventurous and started to explore the whole garden.

The gorgeous one had decided to give their coop a good clean out as they are 3 poo machines really and their house was full of poo. So he disassembled their perch area and took all the straw out of their nesting boxes in order to clean and air it. Whilst it was airing Mabel decided that she wanted to go and use the nesting box to give us a lovely egg, but she was most upset to find that there was no straw or even a route to get to the box. The boy child and I suggested that the gorgeous one put the coop back together and give Mabel some straw, which he did and as soon as it was done, Mabel was in it and after much squawking and shouting, she gave us a lovely fresh egg, which was the first one I found since we had the girls!

We had a barbecue with friends and family over and had quite a houseful really with children and screaming and shouting, even before the football started. The girls coped beautifully. We had corn on the cob on the barbecue and after we had finished, we gave our leftovers to the girls who liked it a lot, even taking it from our hands. They were on the decking when it was full of people and Omelette even ventured into the house, quickly shooed out by yours truly as there will not be chicken poo in my house, thank you very much!

So, whilst not a very successful day for England, a very successful day for 3 now free range chickens.