Something I Never Thought I Would Do

I did something on Sunday that I can say that I never thought I would do in my lifetime, actually never really thought about it either. On Sunday I accepted an invitation to babysit my nephews...this I have done many times. Upon my arrival at my sisters house I was given directions, not regarding the boys...but the chickens. The instructions were to go out to the hen house and "help" the chickens in to their nesting boxes so they would be warm and toasty throughout the night. I was to turn on their heating lamp and place them in their box...sounds simple enough, right?

After playing with the boys, their game of choice was "Chase"...a game I tire of quickly, giving them a bath, reading and doing songs, I ventured out to the hen house. Now something that didn't occur to me is that it would be pitch black outside. I got out there and all I could hear was tweeting (and no, they were not updating their twitter profiles). I looked around and saw a light hanging above, but couldn't find the switch to turn it on. So I opened the door to the coop, hoping I wouldn't step on them, and was guided by the tweeting, but couldn't see them. So I cautiously reached down and grabbed one of them, happened to be Harriet (the largest) and she was very still and didn't fuss....success, one down three to go. Next was Lola, she wasn't too thrilled I was picking her up but was happy once she was in the box. Hennie flapped her wings a bit but was overall happy to be joining the others in the box. Cutie on the other hand was a mess. I'm not sure if she was just confused that the others were gone, or she couldn't see me either, but it took a couple of tries to get her to cooperate. Once I got a hold of her, her tweeting hit an all time high and the wings were flapping and she almost jumped out of my hands before she got to the nesting box.

They all made it in to the nesting box and I'm sure had a great nights rest. However, next time I am over there I will ask my sister where the light switch is as I'm sure I looked like a complete fool trying to get these chickens to work with me!