Easter eggs

Lady Marmalade was QUITE put out that I invaded her privacy while she was attending to her egg-laying business on the nest yesterday. I rarely open the nest box door when I know a hen is inside (usually when it happens I simply wasn't paying attention that all the chickens were not accounted for in the coop run), but it is pretty cute.

Meanwhile, the rest of the ladies enjoyed their Easter treat of a head of lettuce and cut up carrot tops. Tasty, and good fun!

We got a lot done outside on Saturday, seeing that it was such a glorious sunny day. Jeff made huge progress on the path from the patio to the chicken coop, and even put down pavers in front of the coop. (The ladies went NUTS as he was loosening up the soil, because of all the worms it stirred up. Worms that they couldn't get to. Oh, the chickenmanity!)

Some of our garden beds are still to cold and wet to plant in, but I was able to plant three kinds of peas (shelling, snap and snow) and small patches of lettuce and spinach. I covered up a few beds with clear plastic to help them dry out and warm up. The Zoo Doo we got was really wet and clumpy this year (side effect of our cold, wet weather), so the beds are a little tricky to work with right now.

It is quite fun working in the garden with chickens nearby. It's entertaining, and even a little soothing, to here them going about their business, making their little chicken noises. I especially like how they turn their attention on you with laser-like focus every time you pull up something green. Chickens love weeds! They had a really nice dust bath too, after we were inside (we were peeping at them out a back window). Little Bob was really in chicken ecstasy, with Marmalade next to her until Coco flopped down right between them (how they don't accidentally kick each other in the eye, I do not know). Miss Buttons remained upright the whole time, eating. That's her usual MO. If you've never seen a chicken dust bath, check out YouTube. There are quite a few there, some of them pretty cute.

Front: Miss Buttons. Back (from left to right): Little Bob (aka Babette), Coco and Lady Marmalade.