chicken tricks

I was in the house cleaning (because that is all I do when I am in the house) and my seven year old ran in the house yelling, “Mom, get your good camera and come quick!” When he wants me to get the ‘good camera’ instead of my phone it usually means there is a bird on a branch and he wants a picture. I grabbed my camera and headed outside.

He had a bag of dried mealworms I had bought the day before for the chickens and was having fun watching his chickens jump. He was very clear he wanted me to take pictures of them in the air.

It is crazy how much we are enjoying our chickens. We would have got them long ago if I had known how easily they would fit into our family and lifestyle. So far it still looks like we have 6 hens. They haven’t started laying eggs yet, but it should happen in the next month or two. We are going to add a bunch more this year and then probably some more chicks next spring.

It is fun to see the kids personalities come out regarding the chickens. My seven year old likes to give them treats just because he likes them. My oldest thinks we should only give them treats after they do a task. He has been watching YouTube videos on training chickens to do tricks, so if he sees his brother giving out mealworms for fun, he puts an end to it. Then out come the markers.

If the chickens peck a certain color marker, they get a treat. And, thus, I have one son who is a chicken farmer. One who is a chicken trainer. One son who doesn’t care. And two girls that just want to hold the chickens.

Little One can often be seen running circles around the coop with three chickens in front of her and three behind. She is always trying to catch one, but is never fast enough.

Photo tip: the settings for all of these images were ISO 100, 1/640, f/2.8.

In a few of the shots you can see the coop in the background. I finally finished painting it last weekend. I have a few more things to finish up on it and then I’ll do a tour of it here and links to the resources we used.