LRH: “Is it time for the meeting yet?”

One thing about chickens… they definitely know how to leave their signatures.  Lately, at our house, they’ve been signing all over the East Porch.  That’s their go-to  negotiations center, whether or not a meeting has been called.

Usually, Little Red Hen is the first to arrive.  She waits patiently, perched on the doorstep and peering through the window with one eye or the other, waiting for Farmer Nyel to call the meeting to order.  With treats.   Slutvana and Clara are usually not far behind, although sometimes they wait to see if it is actually a meeting day or if its just wishful thinking on LRH’s part.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s sunny or gloomy or actually raining out.  Nor does it matter whether they have just enjoyed their morning wake-up treats or it’s late afternoon shortly before kiss-and-goodnight-time.  The girls definitely expect meetings on demand.  Go figure.

You’d think that “free ranging” (as they are) would give them constant opportunities for interesting snacks throughout the garden.  The property is plenty big — especially when you consider that we are down to only three girls.  There should be more than enough delights to go around.  But no.  They seem to prefer the hand-delivered snacks that Farmer Nyel provides at his periodic conferences.  “We’ll wait right here,” is clear without the need for an interpreter.

Slutvana is always the last to arrive at the porch.  She also is the most reluctant about the morning scratch that I take to them each day when I open the coop gate and wish them “Bon appetit and bonne chance with the foraging.”  This morning, though, for the first time ever Slutvana checked out the scratch (crumbled up, stale rice crackers), turned right around and growled as she followed me back to the house.  Yes!  Growled!!!  My knee-jerk response was, “Can I have that in writing please, Ms. Slutvana?”

I reported her cheekiness (do chickens have cheeks) and downright impertinence to Farmer Nyel and, don’t you know, within twenty minutes all three were at the East Door making further demands.  I’m just a bit gleeful to report that Farmer Nyel has not yet called a conference for today.  The girls, though. have not given up.  And they are leaving their signatures all over the meeting site!