What fun to watch our younger pullets get to know a new hen and establish a new pecking order but ALSO the differences between the new hen and our girls. As you can see in previous posts, our pullets are pretty at ease with our yard, our dog, our grass, our garden and all the humans that come walking through. This was ALL new to the her. First time we let them out of the pen she was shocked to be on grass (she was on mud previously with some out and about in a wooded field) so she tried to eat the lawn - all of it. Our dog Obie had to put up with a screaming chicken for the first few times she saw him in the yard. Our pullets, Obie and just about every other critter in the area stopped and stared at her. She has now calmed down. She was very concerned about every person that came through the back yard and would run for cover or into the coop.
Almonds and a big change.
A few days ago Elizabeth wanted to enjoy one of those last tolerable evenings outside with the chickens hanging around. We sat with the day coming to an end, birds, squirrels, chickens, dog, cat. We fed the chickens by hand and the new one figured out that maybe humans are *ok*. But then, we were finishing up some dry roasted unsalted almonds and we decided to crush 'em up and see what the chickens thought of them. HUGE HIT - we got mobbed including the new hen. And, from that moment on, she is like the others. Confident, curious. She runs to great us. She waits at the door for us to come back out. She makes welcoming noises when she sees us. Its all about the possibility of more almonds.
AND...She has since rewarded us with a little bit of perfection as shown in the picture below.
