April 12, 2011

Bathing Chickens



Chickens like to take "dust baths". Over the weekend, the weather was warm and beautiful. It was actually 80 degrees. Our hens decided it was time for a bath...in my herb box.



I haven't got around to cleaning up my herb box for the season yet, and the hens were more than happen to get in there and turn over the soil for me. My husband found them in there twice and chased them away both times.



I found them in there once myself...of course, I ran to get my camera before chasing them off.



They were probably thinking, "ok, what's up with this lady, first she takes a photo cause we're so cute..and then she chases us away."



After I chased the chickens away, I got out my little spade and fork and turned over the soil and added a fresh bag of potting soil.



Three of my herbs actually grew back from last year and are already sprouting leaves: tarragon, chives, oregano and thyme. I'll be adding basil, parsley, cilantro and dill...also another couple of thyme plants. I've noticed that I use thyme a lot and I ran out of thyme in November. Ugh. Can't let that happen again.

By the way, here is what my herb box looked like in all it's glory last summer. I even grew a little lettuce in there as well. It's just quicker and easier for me to pick it for lunch and dinner when it's right close to the house. I can't wait until it looks like this again.



P.S. Even after I made my herb box beautiful and ready for planting, on Monday afternoon, I found our white Americauna bathing. Well, she hates it when she's spotted bathing. I am not kidding. She hopped up so fast, squawed and bawked and jumped out of my herb box. Her feathers were covered in black soil. As she ran away shaking out the dirt and sqwaking at me, I told her "no, I am not going to apologize, your on my turf baby." Ahhhhhh, chickens are so funny!