she’s the one who got them croissants for breakfast.
My Croissant – it’s all mine, I tell you
Val returned from shopping with some reduced items. She handles bargain shopping like a cross between a military exercise and a Viking raid! Getting between Val and the bargains can be damaging to your health. This time she had, amongst other things, some bread rolls and croissants.
“Oh, nice,” says I, “I quite like croissants.”
“They’re not for you,” she answered quickly, “they’re for girls!”
Snatch and Grab – run away quick with the treasure
I tore the treat into chunks before going into the run. If I just dropped the croissant into the run, they’d have no trouble dismembering it but an all out riot would most likely develop. Croissants are pretty high up in the Top Ten Chicken Treats list.
Well as I walked into the run, one of the Charlie Browns jumped up and snatched a chunk from my hand. Whether by sight or smell, she certainly knew I’d got the good stuff!
Hen’s Breakfast Croissant
Dropping the rest of the croissant down started the funniest free for all. They’d grab a piece and run off down the run to stop anyone else stealing it. Chocky, the clever Norfolk Grey, would then stash her chunk and run back for another.
Chocky in the background eating Charlie’s croissant (sorry it’s blurry)
One of the Charlies decides this looks to be a good idea and rushes back to get another piece but she’s still got the first piece firmly in her beak. She stops and thinks for a few seconds, then drops the piece from her beak and snatches up another piece.
It took her three goes to drop the tasty piece at the other end of the run and head back for another with an empty beak. Not the brightest tool in the box, albeit a real sweety. When she finally managed this trick, Chocky calmly ate her stash whilst Charlie was getting another piece.
Charlie running back for more but forgetting to drop the piece she’s already carrying.
It took me but a moment to collect three eggs, not bad for this time of year. Lovely as the fresh eggs are, the real joy was watching the girls’ antics for ten minutes.
Hi John been looking at your site for a while now but this is my first visit to your poultry page and you’re right their antics and their social interactions are fascinating. I have started to take my young puppy to the allotment and of course she met the girls I thought they may be intimidated by her… how wrong can you be! Gladys (3 hens are named after Aunties long departed) started to growl at the dog,(I have now renamed her ‘growler’) and start a full blown wings out legs in the air attack, she’s not even the dominant hen. Things have calmed a little and the dog can help me gently round them up for bedtime but we watch out for Gladys!