Getting to Know Penny

Lately I have found the act of simply watching Henny Penny (our 1 year old survivor chicken) and Cherry (our goat) relaxing. Watching them as they free range, watching them watch me. In doing so, they have become more of friends than animals on the homestead. Penny gets irritated and impatient when Cherry is allowed to graze and she is stuck in her fence. She paces, back and forth along the fence with that angry little clucking. "I can't believe she is leaving me in here...I just can't believe it." Of course, we can't have Penny upset, so when she is allowed out, she runs to Cherry and stays right by her side, probably whispering about me. It's a wonder my ears don't burn.

Penny has learned she is not allowed in the brooder coop, even though the curosity about kills her. While I am feeding the wee ones, I will see her hop on the top step and stick her neck in the door just to see what is up, but never any further.

Today, one of the dogs was barking toward the chicken coop, the back side or the tool shed as it were. I went in, hoe in hand, looking for a snake. There is no way I could find it in there with all the cords and wires and hoses and snakey-looking things. There was no movement. I went over to the coop side and the baby chickens were fine, Penny was fine and I had an egg. That was encouraging. I decided to check more often just in case.

As the evening was upon us, and the sun was setting, I decided to take one more look in the coops. Penny was in the chicken yard, a little odd for that time of the day. I opened the door to the brooder coop and Penny just hopped on in, nothing stopping her. What in the world? She had never done that before. She didn't even look at the babies as she went to a corner. The chicks were fine, nothing the matter. Maybe there was something in her coop...I shooed her out. She was a bit huffy about it. I grabbed the infamous shovel that I keep near the coop door. As I was walking toward Penny's coop, I noticed the door had shut. I am not sure how, must have been a wind. As soon as I opened the door, Penny bounded in and I heard her fly up on the roost and whisper 'finally.' Oops! She couldn't get in her own bed. No wonder she was cranky! My bad. I think I heard her snore before I even got out of the gate...