Henny is still living at the house. It’s been just over 3 months since her break, but I don’t want to put her back at the barn with all of the others. She’s got a special place, mainly in the garage where she’s decided to lay and roost.

Again, it’s Henny’s world, we’re just living in it.

We incubated and hatched several batches of chicks this spring. They start out in a brooder with heat inside the house and are then moved to the garage in a bigger pen with heat. Once they grow out of that, we let them out during the day and back in the pen as a coop at night. Eventually, they are moved out to the barn area either to free range or in large pens.

Henny is the flock leader over each new flock of chicks. She shows them the ropes – how to scratch around, how to hide underneath vehicles, how to allow the cats to get close and then peck them right in the face, how to take a nap on the outdoor couch and chair cushions – chicken things like that. She even voluntarily goes into their coop/pen with them at night.

Occasionally, Henny will come to the door and look in through the glass. I open the door and sometimes she walks away and sometimes she decides to come on in and enjoy some air conditioning. She pays visits to places she’s been, like the shower.

She’s still not a friendly, sociable chicken, but she does like me to pick her up to let her stretch her legs out sometimes.