Out On The Town

Runaway Rhonda is at it again.  She manages to slip through the opening under the fence that I thought I'd blocked.  She goes walkabout several times a day.  I would worry more about her but she never goes far and unlike dithering hens in the past, she always goes back into the pen on her own.  If she happens to be out when I take the morning milk to the chickens, she comes running to be let in the gate to get her share.  Rhonda is no dumb chick.

I've been calling the pullets the "little" little girls, but they're growing into full-size chickens.  All except for BF Betty.  Betty seems small compared to the others, light when I pick her up.  And, of course, I continue to pick her up at least once every day.  There is a box roost in the coop and Betty and I sit down for a cuddle and a chat in the morning.  She will forego whatever treats I've included with the scratch just to be held.

Bonding with chickens seems to run in our family.  My mother and (step)sister were alone for some years before Mother married my father.  I've seen pictures and heard stories of Tootles, a pet hen who followed my sister like a puppy and traveled with them in the car.  (I don't think I'll go that far.)

I don't know what's going on with the hens.  They seem to have just quit laying eggs.  There was only the one contribution from the pullets and no more.  I haven't changed their feed and they get plenty of oyster shell supplement as always.  Production has always slowed down during the hot days of summer, but this is ridiculous.  I've had no eggs to sell, and I'm down to just one in the refrigerator for my use.  We're going to have to have a serious discussion about this situation because I'll be really ticked if I have to buy eggs.

The Ladies of Fair Play are meeting tomorrow for a pool party at Camille's, so I needed to go, not as far as town, but to the grocery store.  It made me smile when, not for the first time, someone passing by said, "I like your overalls."