Let 'em in

Happy New Year chicken fans!

Now the snow is gone the chickens are once again enjoying (destroying) the garden, although after all the rain we've had they're wading around a little at the minute! On Thursday I worked from home and it rained like mad all day, we had let them out in the garden when it wasn't raining too hard and the girls were enjoying being out and about but then even when the rain started to pour they still thought they could wander around as usual - d'oh. Eventually we had to shut them in their run as they were all saturated. How many times do I have to tell them that they are NOT waterproof!?!

Omelette is absolutely lovely looking now (and is huge!)but has sprouted white feathers on her head making her very distinctive looking! She is also concerning the gorgeous one as her comb has gone a bit pale which can mean they are under the weather, but it can also mean that they are a bit broody. It will be interesting if she is broody because she's not laying proper eggs so I'm not sure how she would try and hatch and egg with a hole in it or an egg with a jelly shell!

Yoko is now the scruffy one, but has got new feather growth on her wings, lovely white fluffyness coming through under her other feathers. She seemed to be getting a bit bullied by the other two and she was wandering around by herself a lot when the other two went off together. However, now she seems to be back in the fold, I hope they're not picking on her because she's not as pretty as the others.

Mabel continues to be the mother hen, laying lovely eggs and looking like the beautiful Warren chicken she was born to be! She is the one who sleeps by herself now in the nesting box while the other two sleep together in the perching (ha) area.

Anyway, bessie mate (OH) suggested that I upload some video of them doing stupid things (normal day then) so I'll work on that and get some uploaded as soon as I can. We Skyped yesterday and she got to see them all lined up against the patio doors, it's common picture these days, they even knock on the windows!

A few nights ago the gorgeous one and I were sitting in the dining room and it was all dark. We'd let the girls put themselves to bed as usual when we heard a tapping at the window. One of the girls had come and was banging at us - funny, we thought. As they all should have been in bed, the gorgeous one went to check on them and to shut them in for the night. When he got to the house he saw a chicken under the house so we went to pick her up and put her in the house. That's when he realised that it wasn't just one chicken, it was three and where he'd cleaned out the girls earlier that day he'd shut their house up and not opened it again! I think that one of the girls came to say "Oi! You've shut us out!".