We've started letting the chickens out of their house to explore the backyard in the evenings shortly before dusk. They have been enjoying their outings, gradually venturing further from homebase. They seem to appreciate last fall's leaves still on the ground. There is a veritable chicken buffet hidden under there. I wish they could spend all their time outside; they really love it, but it seems too risky to leave them out when we are away. So until we work out an enclosure attached to the hen house they will have to manage with supervised excursions. We must be ever on the lookout for vicious predators like this one trying to escape.
Tonight they discovered a pile of sand. After much scratching and pecking, Celine sat down and began fluffing her feathers and rolling in the sand. Sylvie stood watching for a bit, then joined in. They rolled side to side, under each others wings, flapped and fluffed and cooed. They looked so content; they seemed to be settling in to sleep. I suppose this was a bath. Someone who has chickens will explain this to me, right?
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