About 5:00 I went out to turn on the grill in anticipation of grilling a steak, potatoes, and corn on the cob for a Fourth of July feast. My hens go to bed early, and with the cloudy skies "dusk" seemed to come earlier than usual. Britney was already on the shelf.
I opened the lid, turned on the gas, lit the grill, and closed the lid and she didn't move an inch. Over the next hour and a half I opened the lid several times to turn over the foil packets of potatoes and corn and eventually to put the steak on, and turned it over a couple times, eventually removing all the food, shutting off the gas, and bringing it in to eat.
She stayed put the whole time. You'd have thought it was a bit warm through all the cooking but she was more determined to keep her spot. Silly bird.
The two Araucana hens, Marilyn and Britney, are the last of the sixteen chickens I brought here from Norco seven and a half years ago. They're about nine years old now. Britney still lays an egg for me now and then. Her eggs are light olive green. When Marilyn was laying, hers were blue-green. They're sweet hens -- Araucanas are friendly -- and I can pick them up if I want.
Lately they've been pretty much living on the porch with the dogs, and of course the porch is where the barbecue is. They've been eating the dogs' food so I don't even have to feed them any more. I just need to make sure there is water they can reach.
Anyway, I took these pictures of Britney on the barbecue grill:
They were named Marilyn and Britney because there originally was a third one, Madonna. As chicks, they were all yellow, so I named my three blond chicks after three blonde chicks, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, and Britney Spears. I later gave Madonna to a friend.
So that's a chicken tale from the Ranch.
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