Down the Rabbit Hole

"I'm late!  I'm late for a very important date!," said the White Rabbit.  And so am I.  Some of the Kids are coming up early this morning, and I've so much to do before they get here.  I certainly don't want to be stuck in the barn and miss a moment of their visit.

In preparation for moving the pullets over to the hen house, I started clipping wings yesterday.  That was an adventure.  The wire-covered pen is only four feet high, so I'm in there, bent over like Quasimodo, grabbing whichever chicken comes within range as they run, flutter, and squawk like creatures demented.  Bessie Anne gets panicked if her chickens are upset (and they're all her chickens), so she had to stay in the house for this procedure.  Her running around the pen, trying to "help," would have made the chaos complete.  By my count, I clipped wings on ten of the sixteen, but that may be off a bit as the same chicken might have been picked up two or three times.  Learning from experience, I clip only one wing, the same wing on each one.  That makes it a lot easier to check.  Also, I found that with both wings clipped, the little boogers can still get enough lift to fly.  Clipping the feathers on just one side puts them off balance for take off and keeps them in the pen.  I'll try to get the unclipped little girls taken care of this morning.  The big move has to take place after dark, and I don't want to be scissoring away by the light on my miner's cap.