ferrousland.com - diary archives
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
chookie adventures - 04:51 PM
i was inside yesterday morning, still resting on the couch shortly after deciding i was having only false labour, not the real thing, when shroom, myself, stuart (shroom's best mate who's currently visiting from canberra) & the dog, heard a bird making kind of cheep/tweet noises outside the lounge room window. stu wondered out loud if it was a chook, but i said, "no, no. it must be just a bird. it can't be a chook." he was certain though, especially since he'd found one of them outside the chook shed the day before & put her back. it turned out he was right. one of the chooks had not only escaped, but had wandered all the way from the shed to the back porch.
we were rather surprised that she'd come all that way. it's only about fifteen to twenty metres away (that's over fifty feet or so) but for a baby chook, without her mates, that's a long way away. they're not usually very brave on their own, they tend to hang out together pretty much all the time, hardly ever on their own.
after mcgarnicle chased her around for a bit, we took her back to the shed, but then decided that since they've seemed so keen to explore lately, that we should let them out & see where they go. they hung around the shed door for a bit, but eventually wandered to the outside corner of the shed. they pecked at a few bugs in the dirt & had a dirt bath or two, then headed toward the porch as a group.
they ended up hanging out with us for a number of hours! mcgarnicle followed them around for a little while & ate up their fresh poos (he's so gross) but mostly ignored them. they slowly made their way around the porch, finding bugs & spiders as they went. they particularly liked the bricks. they pecked at all the little cracks & especially the mortar where bugs & things had found what they thought were good hidey-holes. shroom had a great idea about starting an exterior house cleaning service where we could just send the chooks in to eat all the bugs & spiders (they even liked the webs), & send mcgarnicle in at the same time to clean up after the chooks. 
after working their way all the way around the edge of the porch & then under the porch fence to where the wheelie bin is kept, they eventually settled down together in a sunny patch & spread themselves out in the funniest positions, legs & wings stretched out to catch as many rays as possible. we'd been out there for a number of hours at this stage, talking & drinking (i had soft drink left over from the housewarming party two nights ago) & being greatly amused by the chooks. we wanted to go inside eventually, so we collected them (stu managed to carry three at once in his arms) & put them back into the shed. initially, we tried to get the dog to round them up, but he wasn't really interested. he ended up just scattering them, instead. who knows, with a bit of practise (although i have no idea how we'd train him to do it) we might be able to get him to put them back in the shed for us.
you can see some pics of them on their big adventure in the photolog.
We think your chooks could be looking for some grit,their use this in their crop to help grind up food.
Hi, I love the pictures of your little "chooks", ha, we call them "chicks". Anyway they look good and from the pictues, it is easy to see that your place is a wonderful location for pets and children. No wonder you love it. Don't overdo now!
And, you are probably saying, we call them "pictures" - sp. problem!
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But who's going to clean up after the Sparn then?