The spring days grow longer and warmer. Of course, it’s welcomed. Still, the precious bit of time at the end of the work day that I can spend watering, weeding, moving plants, starting new plants, potting up containers, is never enough. I have big plans for the summer of 2010. Where will I find the time? And the energy?
The side garden near the chicken coop—where we sit on the bright green Swedish bench to watch Chicken TV—is a major project. It was a long-neglected area that we once referred to as Winifred’s Poop Garden because of its liberal use by our now-deceased Belgian Malinois.
Last year I divided variegated hostas and supplemented them with ‘Sun and Substance’ and a couple of ‘Blue Angel’ hostas. The slugs love the variegated hostas, so they’ll slowly be replaced with other plants. Several tiarella, or foam flowers, have gone in. Twenty more are on the way. I’m keeping my eyes open for more dramatic, thick-leafed hostas that Mr. McGregor’s Daughter tells me will be more slug-resistant so I can toss the variegated slug bait to the chickens.
Trying to establish a little green bit of lawn in front of the bench where the two little Papillons can lounge has been a struggle. It was looking pretty good last summer, but the snow plows did severe damage as they piled 5-foot tall walls of snow in the area this winter. The chickens are attracted to the fresh soil when they’re on walkabout and have managed to dig up the tiny grass seedlings I’ve been nursing. Now I’m thinking I’ll transplant more of the creeping Jenny from other parts of the yard to create a different kind of ground cover.
In the front of the house—a shady, north-facing exposure, the ‘Encore’ azaleas are blooming despite severe damage from the heavy snow. The hellebores have been casting off seedlings for a couple of years now and I will be moving them over to the woodland garden sometime this summer.
In the potager, the angelica anemones are blooming. I must figure out a plan for them, as they re-seed prolifically and clog up my garden paths. I feel guilty pulling them up like weeds, but what is a gardener to do? One must have paths!
I continue to be amazed by the simple little yellow pansies that I had planted in window boxes last fall. They hibernated under a couple of feet of snow and snuck out small blossoms despite the cold. Now they’ve roared back to life. I need to re-plant the window boxes, but the pansies look so vibrant and healthy, I’m temporarily relocating some of them into other containers.
I continue to tell myself to put one foot in front of the other and to stop to enjoy the sound of the birds and the beauty of spring. After all, the work is for a reason. Right?
Robin
Now that spring has sprung, I’m more willing to do outdoor guard duty while the chickens have some walkabout time at the edges of the woods and in the yard.
They have the run of the place for at least a couple of hours most days. But when I open their outdoor run, the first thing all the chickens do is run, run, run for a spot between the back of the house and my Miss Kim lilac. This is where they bathe.
For chickens, a bath doesn’t involve water and bubbles. It involves loose dirt or dust.
The chickens dig and scratch with their sharp nails until there is a nice, soft patch of loose soil. Then each hen nestles down into the spot that she has prepared and wallows around, scratching and kicking the soil onto her back, opening her wings and rolling around. It looks like chicken heaven. You should be so happy in the bath.
This little ritual serves a useful purpose for the chickens. In hot weather it helps to cool them off as the soil particles work their way into the feathers. It also goes a long way toward avoiding mites, lice and other parasites. So the dirt bath is serious chicken hygiene.
For me, the chickens have also done me a favor. They have completely eradicated some invasive morning glories that no amount of weeding could control. In the years BC (Before Chickens), the morning glories would often wind their way into the lilac bush.
“Hey, wait!” you say. “Where is the big man while all these hens are bathing?”
Well, T. Boone Chickens usually takes a very abbreviated bath and then standards guard to ensure that the hens are protected and have their privacy.
He’s such a gentleman.
P.S. This is not really a chicken blog. But I do have a chicken section in my photo album. Have you visited it?
Robin
Dear Members of the Management:
In all fairness, we must finally register our indignation and outrage at the absurd and abusive treatment to which we, your chickens, have been subjected in recent weeks.
We will be brief in registering the atrocities we have endured, but we must insist on going on the record with our complaints and insist on remediation of the situation immediately.
First, you shortened our daylight hours to a mere nine or ten hours of feeble sunlight. We have work to accomplish, laying eggs and scratching for bugs. Both of these activities require copious amounts of daylight to do successfully. Everyone knows that egg production is an arduous activity that requires at least 12 hours of sunlight. Although you have installed two dim bulbs, which you amusingly call energy-efficient, they in no way mimic the true brilliance of the natural sunlight to which we are rightfully entitled.
Second, you lowered the outdoor temperatures to an uncomfortable level. Some days it barely reaches above 30 degrees outdoors. Although you have installed a heating system within the coop, we must point out that it does not extend to the outdoors, thus creating a hardship for all of us hens when we venture past the window and into the outdoor run. We must make the difficult decision to stay indoors huddled next to the panel heater or brave the elements for a bit of fresh air and bug scratching. Again, outdoor warmth is a basic right to which we feel we are entitled.
Although these first two complaints are significant to the extent to warrant investigation by the animal humane authorities and the chicken workforce health and safety officials, it is your recent actions that are the most negatively extreme and egregious use of your management powers.
This thing you spread on the ground (you call it “snow”), is frightfully cold, wet and uncomfortable. It caused us to remain within the coop walls—cooped up, so to speak—for a full three days before you provided relief in the way of scattered leaves and shoveling that allowed us to exit for some exercise and air. U.S. airline passengers are provided with more amenities during periods of such confinement! To add insult to injury, you continued your war of inconvenience with the diminished sunlight and reduced outdoor temperatures.
The most hideous abuse of power, however, is your refusal to open the gate for our customary late-afternoon walkabout in the yard. We have consulted the calendar and calculate that it has been nearly TWO WEEKS since you have afforded us the opportunity to patrol for bugs and stretch our wings outside the confines of the coop and outdoor run. Outrageous!
It is beyond the bounds of decency how you can manage a flock under these conditions and yet expect us hens to maintain our efficiency in egg production and bug control. Your extreme insensitivity to the plight of us chickens during these past few weeks boggles our minds. We are confused. We are resentful. And we insist on correction of each of these situations immediately.
Respectfully yours,
The Chickens
P.S.
We have the phone number for the SPCA and we’re not afraid to use it.
Robin
