Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap.

This is becoming a regular sight this summer. They seem to quite enjoy sitting on the doorstep watching us. Often they sit so close to the door that they knock against it as they preen, making me jump on more than one occasion. Tap, tap, tap.

Joe has taken to taunting them by placing different objects on our side of the glass. They found a mirror mildly confusing, but go nuts over the sight of a tin of corn that they can't reach!

I'm now waiting for the day this summer when we leave the door open and suddenly discover a chicken wandering around the kitchen. This does of course assume that the weather is sunny enough for such things....

Happy Birthday Hens!

One year!

We've now had the girls for 37 weeks, and they were 15 weeks old when we got them - which by my reckoning makes today their birthday. Here are a few highlights from the last nine months:

The first few days:

Pepper looks so much younger in these early photos.

Gaining their trust:

We are now well established as "The Bringers of Food".

Learning how much they love fruit:

Having a bath:

After accidentally shutting Lemon out in the rain overnight, we brought her inside
for some pampering. 

Our Christmas present:

The first egg - laid on Christmas Day.

Freedom of the garden:

They love checking for dropped seed under the bird feeders.

Fizzing Whizzbee

I have recently been posting video introductions of our clan. Last but not least in our flock we have Fizzy. Fizzy is everything the others were not. She was the first and the bravest of our hens to eat from our hands, and will always pay most attention to what we're doing in the garden - just in case there's something interesting happening. She is the first out of the coop every morning, and was the clever one that sussed out the feeder weeks before the others.

If you missed my earlier posts, have a peek at my introductions to Pepper, Frog and Lemon.

A Squeeze of Lemon

Third on my list of introductions is Lemon. Lemon is large and fluffy and relatively tame, but nowhere near as calm as Frog or Pepper. It took a while for Lemon to trust us, but she is now happy to come and eat from our hands - and she'll never miss an opportunity to raid an unguarded corn pot (see footage of Pepper for a prime example). She also particularly loves fruit (even more so than the other three), and is quite willing to beg, borrow and steal in an attempt to get a mouthful of something sweet.

Why not also watch my introductions to Pepper and Frog?

Ribbit, Ribbit

The next in my series of chicken introductions brings you the quiet and unassuming Frog. She is the little'un of the group - shyer than the others and less likely to fight to the front in an attempt to get corn. In a British "love of the underdog" way she has a special place in the group - but she's also quite capable of standing up for herself, and it makes us smile whenever she forces Lemon or Pepper (easily twice her size) to back down.

Wondering what Pepper is like? Catch up on her introduction here.

A Peppery Post

I have had requests for some video footage on this blog. As one particular request specified that I should be attempting to catch a chicken I suspect that the person in question was looking for a good laugh. However, I decided I would oblige. Not once, mind you, but four times.

I am going to give you a chance to see our girls in the flesh, and this week it's the turn of the lovely Pepper. Pepper is one of the easiest to catch and one of the calmest too. So without further ado I'll let me do the rest of the talking:

A little bit of Pepper

Pepper has an issue. To be more specific: Pepper has a limp. We've checked her foot, and her leg. We've poked and prodded her to see when she reacts, and she doesn't. We've watched her behaviour and she seems to be herself; she's eating happily, squabbling with the others over any treats and running around like normal. Yet she is definitely reluctant to put weight on her right leg. We're leaving her for the time being to see if she can sort herself out, but it's worrying to see her hobbling so much.

One advantage of this is that we've been spending more time with her and she seems to be responding well to regular handling. I've said before that we'd had some problems as we've tried to tame our hens, but Pepper is now in no hurry to get away from us. She seems to be happy to spend time sitting on my knee once placed there, and I even persuaded her to voluntarily climb on to my leg the other day (with the help of a handful of corn of course). This makes me happy!

The Taming of the Hen

Me making friends with our four hens

What is the best way to tame a chicken? They can be flighty and scared of sudden movements. And slow movements. And, well, any motion at all. Our girls are no different. I have seen them panic at passing house sparrows.

We wanted our hens to be pets as much as we wanted egg-producers, which is just as well as they have yet to lay an egg! Watching them from a distance is good fun, but we want to be able to interact with them properly too.

Bribery. As far as I can tell, bribery is the answer. To be more specific, food is easily the quickest way to a chicken's heart. We enter their run each day armed with a pot of mixed corn. A small scattering to get them interested, and then start keeping the corn close to us in an attempt to persuade them closer. We are even more popular on the days we present them with a grape each. Fizzy and Pepper quickly learnt to accept offerings straight from our hands, and even Frog lately has gained enough confidence to join them. Sadly, Lemon keeps her distance a little, but we try to throw her some corn while the others are distracted to make sure she gets her share.

Our real aim however, was to tame them enough to be picked up. Plenty of other chicken keepers will testify to their girls loving cuddles. So, after a couple of weeks, we started a routine of catching each of them on a daily basis, and rewarding them with food. Panic and mayhem followed. Pepper and Frog seemed the most calm while being held, but after only two days all four would barely leave their coop if we were in the run with them. Not even for corn. We gave up. We had no desire to turn them against us, and this tactic was clearly not working.

It didn't take long of just sitting in with them quietly for the girls to regain their former enthusiasm for all things edible. Did we give up too soon, I wonder? What do you think? Will it get better?