A grape fairy delivery

Well, today it was 70 degrees and gorgeous!!  And I was eager to spend the entire day outside with my animals, sometimes we let the girls frolic in the yard, but we have NEVER let them frolic and forage all day……that is-until TODAY!!! 

 

Half way through the day, Betty (Grabel) and Roz had to take an egg laying break.

 I was not well received when I opened the door to snap this picture.  Betty was MAD at me!! Mainly b/c she had grass in her comb and I kept trying to brush it all out, she lays our biggest egg, and she REALLY didn't want to be messed with (I think the picture shows)  

 

  Since Roz was in the house first Betty had to wait patiently as Roz laid her egg, then Betty hoped into the box, after she was done, she nudged both eggs together.  The whole thing was adorable and fascinating to watch.   

 2 perfect eggs, from 2 perfect hens..making it a total of 5 perfect eggs from 5 perfect Chicky-babies!

It was a grand day, I raked, they foraged, and then, I had to rake some more.  I moved my giant mound of Texas Black Clay, and they dug holes in the yard, and then I filled holes.  I trimmed trees, they scratched around the trees.  I relocated worms and they ate all the grub worms I found.  They tried to eat my relocated worms, I chased them away.  They tried to eat my newly relocated lavender, I chased them away.  I filled the compost with grass clippings from their chicken-tractor, they tried to eat the compost-I chased them away. 

Overall we had a Happy-Happy Chicken day and a Happy-Happy Mama day!!!

 

(The grapes were left on the front porch and the Husband left them in the entry way.  I saw them when I went to check the mail.  At first I thought he bought them and just forgot to bring them in with the groceries.)

Also, a grape fairy stopped by our house this morning, and left our piggy girls almost 2 pounds of grapes!!  (I spent almost an hour calling our friends/family to figure out who the fairy was-turns out it was our neighbor).  Our girls should start a fan club; we’d get all kinds of goodies!!  They love grapes, it’s their absolute favorite!!  I mean they like apples, pears, and strawberries, but they go nutty for grapes-it’s so cute to watch!!  Anyways, they got to roam around the yard all day, AND (thanks to the grape-fairy) they got to eat 2 giant handfuls of grapes.  Oh, yeah, Hazzard (our half heeler/half foxhound) got to meet the girls face-to-face for the first time today.  I did this when the husband wasn’t home, he would have been as nervous as a cat, those silly chickens are his babies.  He carefully explained to me the “rules” of Hazzard, “she needs to be IN THE HOUSE before you let the girls out.  I understand his point, he wants to protect the girl’s b/c it only takes a quick second and something terrible can happened.  It’s just the behaviorist in me, knows that we have to train and teach Hazzard the appropriate way to act around the chickens and what better time than when she is still a puppy and while I am still off work.  She really exceeded my expectations, she got in trouble once for charging them, after that…she was awesome, usually she’s jumping around like a damn circus monkey, I was amazed at how soft and gingerly she was around them!!

It was truly a great day!! 

Also, Hazzard likes grapes.