Camping Out!

I worked late on Tuesday night so my husband very kindly sorted the girls out for me. When I went down to see them on Wednesday afternoon they seemed a little bit confused. I let them out of the run into the garden and began cleaning up. Whilst I was sorting the food and water, Little Pea came charging into the run like her life depended on it before coming to a dramatic halt by the door of the hen house – the door was closed. It should have been open; I have an automatic door to the hen house which works off a light sensor. The sensor is on the end of a long plastic coated wire which usually rests across the roof of the hen house; when it’s dusk, the door closes and in the morning the light activates the sensor and the door opens.

To clean our hen house, I lift off one side of the roof which then allows me to get to the perching and nesting areas. The sensor had inadvertently been trapped inside the house after aforementioned (lovely) husband had sorted the girls the previous night. I took the sensor out, the door opened and Little Pea made a desperate dart for the nest box where she promptly and somewhat indignantly laid an egg. Another egg had been laid on the floor under the nest box by one of the girls who clearly didn’t have the ‘egg holding power’ that Little Pea had exhibited.

Needless to say, hens being hens roost on the highest perch and as they hadn’t been able to get into the house at bedtime, they’d done the next best thing and perched on the top of it. In retaliation and as a just and fair punishment for having been shut out of their house over night (and all of the day!), they’d pooped all over the roof too.

Thankfully it had been a mild night so the girls wouldn’t have been cold but I felt awful that they hadn’t been able to go to bed or to get into the nest box to lay. Luckily the girls seem to have forgiven us and have emerged unscathed from their camping out experience! Maybe they felt like they had a little adventure!

Sam x