The Royal People Chicks vs The Royal Chicken Chicks

I started my Saturday doing my most favorite thing...cleaning the chicken coop.  NOT!  I mean, I DID clean it, but it is by no means my favorite thing to do.  Even at 8am, sweat and dirt were rolling off of me.  I was not a pretty sight to say the least!

As I was shoveling out the coop and putting in fresh hay (with lavender seeds from our trip to the lavender farm a few weeks ago!!!) I started noticing the similarity of my girls and chickens.  Don't tell them I said this--esp. Hope.  For some reason, I don't think they will think it's a compliment.  But they share a lot of the same things.  Maybe more than they should-ha!

Here's what I was thinking..

As soon as you get the coop in order, they rearrange it to their liking. 
Seriously.  Every time.  I spread the hay evenly.  I put the little Rubbermaid liner under the hay in the nesting boxes so it's softer (this is really self-serving--sometimes the eggs crack when they hit the floor).  Less than an hour later, I went out to see if there were any eggs and 3 of the boxes had the liner pulled up.  Same for the girls with the house.  Except sometimes, they just mess it up by leaving their cups and trash lying around.

They think everything is FOR them.
When I come out of the house and head to their side of the fence, they come running.  They just know I have something for them.  Truth be told, I often do--just like my girls.  I don't like shopping for myself, but I love to pick up things I think they will like (of course, that's a lot harder now that they are older

They ignore the boundaries when possible
Brian just put up a new fence to keep them off part of the yard so we don't step in chicken poop and can one day have a fish fry and not be worried a chicken will steal a guest's food.  We used the bigger cattle panels because they were wayyyy cheaper--which means the holes are big enough for the chickens to get through.  The plan is to put some chicken wire along the bottom, but between the rain, his trip to Guatemala and playing catch-up afterward, he hasn't finished it yet.  So this means many of them just walk through the fence and continue to think the dogs' waterbowl is their drinking source and the whole yard is theirs. 

Have you ever set a boundary for your kids and realized that there were holes and they found them immediately?  Yeah, me neither--ha!

They are amusing and fun to watch.
I can sit outside and watch our chickens for hours.  Or until it gets too hot.  They are funny.  Whether they are tussling over food, taking a dust bath, hunting for grasshopper, positioning themselves to get their favorite roosting spot or just wandering around, they keep me interested.  Same with my girls--have you ever just sat back and watched teenager girls?  It could keep you busy for hours!

So, when you hear me talk about the Royal Chicks, good luck figuring out which ones I'm referring to!