No ping, Random Randall, crazy chickens

Last night Cindy was out at a fitness networking event so I had some rare time home alone.  I used it to try some interactions with the “Impossible Box”.  I spent maybe 15 minutes trying to get anything resembling a response to questions but got nothing back but random bits and pieces of various Shoutcast audio streams.  It’s the result I expected but perhaps not what I hoped for.

I also was surprised to see my cell phone ringing last night with Randall’s name on the caller id.  I immediately feared that something terrible was wrong as Randall and I do not normally talk on the phone.  This is not a situation unique to Randall, I generally do not seek out phone conversations.  So anyway I answered, hoping he wasn’t in a ditch by the side of a road somewhere.

There was no emergency, Randall was just calling to say hi.  He has just started his new job which has a decent commute so he spent some of it catching up with me which was nice.  One of the reasons I am not a big fan of phone calls is I generally am not very good at them.  I have a hard enough time flowing between conversation topics most of the time.  The insertion of cell phone lag where you find one person talking over the other quite often just adds to my frustration.  Anyway we talked for a good 15-20 minutes and made loose plans for Randall to possibly come over for a visit in between Xmas and New Years.

At the tail end of my call with Randall I went out to the chicken coop to put the chickens to bed.  This process involves closing and locking the chicken run door and then going into the coop, making sure the chickens are settled in and all on the perch.

Well you may recall that we added a light on a timer to the coop a few weeks back.  The reason was the chickens were out roaming the yard until the very last speck of light was in the sky.  When they would eventually go into the coop it was very dark, making it difficult for the chickens to get onto the perch because of their poor night vision.  The addition of the light eliminated this issue but seemingly created another.

For whatever reason the chickens seem to not want to be near the light when it is turned on.  We have the light off to the left side and pointing towards the far wall but still they seem bothered by it.  The end result has been most of the chickens trying to crowd onto the right side of the perch.  There isn’t enough room so one of the hens, Stephie has taken it upon herself to find new sleeping arrangements which has been on the shelf where all of the electronics are set up which obviously is a problem.

So for the last week or two we have had to pick up Stephie and place her back on the perch.  We then immediately turn off the light which calms all the chickens down pretty much immediately.  After I placed Stephie back on the perch last night I had my left arm outstretched with the remote control to turn off the light.  The second before I could press the button Kristen, our all white hen jumps off the perch and onto my forearm, like a trained hawk or eagle would do to its handler.  She just stood there content, unwilling to go back on the perch even as I put my arm next to it.   I then petted her for a second before using my other hand to scoop her up and get her back on the perch.  The other night she jumped onto Cindy’s shoulder in a similar fashion.  I never expected chickens to have this many quirks but I do find them endearing and entertaining regardless.