Spoiled Chickens

The chickens have quickly become pets and we are both having such a fun time with them. I find myself wanting to go out to the backyard to see what they are up to and finding treats for them to eat. Lately they've been getting cabbage butterfly caterpillars everyday. Those things are relentless on my cabbage and broccoli. Those white butterflies with the black spot that you see flying around, are the devil. I pick off the caterpillars (I don't know where they are all coming from!)



And the chickens run over excitedly. It's very satisfying to feed a garden pest to a predator. I was feeding slugs, but read somewhere that slugs, snails and earthworms can all give parasitic worms to your chickens, so I don't intentionally feed those to them anymore. I did put a large snail in one day, they didn't seem to know what to do with it. Camilla - more on her below, in her curiosity pecked off one of its eyestalks and that was it. I found the one-eyed snail in the coop later that day.



We've also been blocking off half of the yard and an hour or so before chicken bedtime (they put themselves to sleep as the sun goes down) and letting them run around.
Here is Glinda getting her first taste of freedom.



And then picking the flowers off of my bean plants




They had a blast digging around in one of the garden spaces. I wish they weren't so destructive, it was nice picking beans and having them hang out and talk to me.


This is Camilla, our favorite chicken. She is a banty light brahma, and is as big as she is going to get. Somewhere around 2 pounds. She has this deep little voice and is always the first to greet us and come over to us. For this she is constantly being given special treats on the sly. We didn't name her after Prince Charles' girlfriend.


We named her after this character. Does anyone recognize her?



Maybe this will ring some bells. Camilla is Gonzo's love interest, if you remember he always had a flock of chickens following him around. I just found this on the internet: "Gonzo loves Camilla, but sometimes he chases after other chickens, because he's not always sure which chicken is which. After all, "they all look the same." However, Camilla can be identified by her blue eyelids." These action figures were made by a company called Palisades, which made almost every Muppet character into a figurine. Unfortunately this company went out of business and now a Camilla figurine is spendy!


And then I found this:



Camilla's house! Called Camilla's Place...hmm we might have just found the name for our coop! Speaking of the coop, it will be unveiled shortly, I know you all have been waiting patiently...