Who needs boys, anyway ???

This morning Alicia went out to walk the dog and our good neighbor, Bruce, came over and said that the remains of one of our chickens were over in their back yard - just feathers. Justin and Brian had to work today so Alicia went out by herself and rebuilt the entire wall and roof of the chicken pen almost all by herself (I went out and held stuff and gave important direction and critic). She did a really good job.

We have been talking about how we used to build stuff and do things without waiting for the guys to do it or start it and today, she just took the initiative and did it.

My part came when it was time to round up the chickens. Whatever took the unfortunate one scared the others half to death and they were scattered ALL over the neighborhood. We still don't have a back fence because of the septic tank rebuild so they have had free rein all over the place. They've never sought shelter under the neighbors steps before, though, so it was a bit of a challenge.

They usually come when I call them - usually when we feed them goodies from the kitchen, I go out to watch, so they associate my voice with goodies. So Alicia got me a container of scratch and corn and I lured as many as possible into the new chicken yard. I took my walker in and just sat there and called them and threw out bits of corn. We got about half of them that way, I think Alicia went thru the trees and herded them about 12 times - but finally the turkeys and most of the chickens were in. At one point even the goose came in - he hasn't had corn for a long time and he wanted his share. He didn't want it bad enough to actually stay in there with me, but he thought about it...... We gave him a bunch in his feeder now that the chickens and turkeys aren't eating his food. The final chickens got herded in with the hose.

They settled right in. I fully expect to have a couple dozen eggs in the morning. There is no way these chickens are not laying yet - they are all fully mature when you get up close to them. They apparently have been laying out in the trees where we couldn't find them. We'll let you know.

So Good One on Alicia ! ! Girls ROCK ! ! !