Thursday, February 9, 2012

preparation would be a good idea

In the most recent donation from the local store I was pleased to find about 3 lbs of grapes, I guess the green ones aren't fashionable this time of year. 
I didn't get around to handing some of them out in time, though, so I thought I'd slip them in to the coop as a morning surprise for everyone.
My experience so far has been that once the chickens have gone to roost, they draw a veil of lethargy over themselves and are very easy to catch and to handle.
This is not always the case.
Chickens can be surprising.
I could see that Buck was viewing me with a pointy eye, even though he stayed sitting down in complete roost mode on the perch, but  I didn't like the expression on his beak.  It suggested that he was affronted that I interrupted a private conversation.
They talk among themselves for about 10 minutes before really going to sleep; discuss plans for the next day, talk about their most recent experiences and possibly air old grievances.
 I still don't speak enough avian to know.
All the same, the look he gave me was unmistakeable, and unmitigated by the promise of grapes.
There are some things that one really does not do.
I decided that I'd better have a shield to hold between Buck, who sits closest to the human sized door of the coop, and my face, which I could only assume would be easy for him to reach and mark up.
I held a large dish that had been on the ground in one hand, and the grapes in the other.  Leaning in to the coop to place the grapes in their feeder, Buck, without even standing up, went about the business of slicing up any exposed flesh he could reach.  He did a good job on my fingers and knocked the dish out of my hand.  Not before I had let go of the grapes, though.
In future, I see that I will need to wear a hands free face shield to be at eye level with that chicken.

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Glad to hear from you, but criticisms will be ignored. It's the beauty of the web. I will answer all friendly remarks. Buck handles the rest.