It seems like sound advice, however, after having kept chickens for a few years, I am not sure her theory really holds up and so responded with the obligatory "LOL". Why would I indulge the misbehavior? She wrote back to let me know that I was being an irresponsible chicken keeper, in the only way a mother knows how....indirectly and layered with admonition.
However, as I near my fourth decade, I have learned that my mother usually does know what she is talking about--much to my teenage self's dismay. So to clear my conscience and keep the chooks happy, I dug up some of their run today so they had some dirt to scratch around.
The results are some very happy hens:
There was much chicken babbling and scratching and pecking.
I periodically dig up some area for them. In fact, they now come running if they see me in their yard with a shovel! They were in heaven last year when I added a sprinkler line back there due to the ditch digging.
ReplyDeleteI should have thought of it before. This is the first summer I am keeping them confined to a run in lieu of just fencing the garden....so it had not occurred to me. And yes, they love the shovel...and are always under my feet if I am digging and they are out and about!
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