We’re snacking and hiding…

I cannot get the chickens to come out of the coop. A handful will come out every day, but even on the nicest days, most of the chickens won’t leave the coop. It all started when we had to have our biggest trees removed from our property. It changed the landscape around here, and the chickens didn’t take it well.

But it’s been more than two weeks, maybe three now, and everyone just seems to be in the habit now of staying in the coop. It is cold outside most days…and there’s snow on the ground. I have also been bringing snacks to the coop, so I guess there isn’t much of a reason to leave.

I can’t really blame them. We are snacking and hiding from the world around here too.

Our family was so busy with work, school, and music right up until the Solstice that I don’t know how we made it. The first couple of days after we were able to stop we almost couldn’t sit still. But I knew we all needed some serious rest–like serious rest. So we are embracing it. Our health demands it, I think.

We get up early to bring warm water and fresh food to the chickens and ducks and then go back to bed. Then, when we get up later, we sometimes just eat pie for breakfast. We hang out with the dogs, sit by the fire, play video games on our family Christmas present, and are literally just hiding and snacking. I haven’t even read the news very much, though I realize I need to check it at some point, as I have been worrying about bird flu and heard there was a case in a backyard flock in Vermont.

But I am going to be like Ruby and hide my head in the corner a little longer, though, at some point, both the chickens and I will have to face things. We have gotten two eggs in total in the last week, so I really need those stinkers to get outside and get some sunshine. I guess it will help when I am not delivering fancy snacks to the coop–and when we run out of pie in the house.

I had to drag myself out the day after Christmas to meet a farmer friend to buy some honey. We got to talking about chickens, and I was lamenting that my chickens won’t come out of the coop.

“Do you feed them in the coop?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Well, then what reason do they have to come out of the coop?”

Indeed.