At the moment I give the girls their bedtime treat of a hand full of sunflower seeds at five o’clock. From about half past four the girls are all lined up at the the bottom of the run waiting for me. When I go up at five o’clock they follow me up to the gate with great excitement.
They soon hoover up the sunflower seeds and then scratch for about fifteen minutes more just in case they have missed any. After this they have a quick top up on pellets or water and then make their way into the shed. They all want the top perch and all the original girls settle on the top perch with Speckle sometimes making it and sometimes being chased down to the top rung of the ladder.
Butterscotch however doesn’t join in with this rush to try and get to the top perch. Butterscotch stays out in the run wandering around and scratching and pecking. She has an hour of peace every evening alone in the run. I think that she knows she isn’t going to get to the top perch so she doesn’t rush herself but instead enjoys this extra hour in the run with no one to give her any hassle.
At half past five all the girls are on the top perch except Butterscotch
Speckles is tucked in at the back on the right hand side behind Topaz and is only just visible.
Butterscotch wanders around the run pecking at the ground
At six o’clock Butterscotch is still out in the run
At half past six Butterscotch heads towards the patio area
She strides towards the shed
It’s her time to go in
Butterscotch takes her usual place on the top rung of the ladder
It’s the same pattern every day with Butterscotch going in an hour behind the others. There is never any danger of her not making it in time as the automatic door won’t close until over an hour later. Butterscotch is smarter than she looks and I think she probably finds this the best hour of her day. What a clever girl she is.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Having a sussex, I can testify that they may be smarter than their looks or other feathered counterparts! ?
I think you are right. At first we got the impression that Butterscotch was nice but dim. We soon realised our mistake and now think that actually she is very smart. She plays it so casually but has it all sorted. Definitely much smarter than we first thought.
That’s really interesting because mine don’t put themselves to bed until about 8 o clock at the moment.
Wow, that is so much later! I think the automatic door shuts at about quarter past eight at the moment but mine go in so early. I often wonder why they don’t stay out longer but it’s so routine. What I describe here is like clockwork every evening.
I blame Richard for stereotyping Butterscotch.. I remember what he said ? the expression dumb blonde springs to mind .
Mine all line up at the patio doors for their afternoon treats at roughly the same time every night. The darker it gets in the evening the earlier they line up , but it is usually an hour before bedtime.. Chickens are far cleverer than some people give them credit for.
I have a funny feeling that the little butterscotch is going to become a firm favourite as she is her own person … I like that .
My girls line up for the treats a bit earlier as it gets dark earlier too.
You are right about Butterscotch, we got her totally wrong to start with. Her quiet calm wasn’t dim after all, she was biding her time. Turns out she is much smarter than she looks and has more character than we credited her with.