by Dina Psichogiopoulos

Created on: March 02, 2010   Last Updated: March 03, 2010

What is the funniest animal?

Without a doubt the funniest animal is the little red hen.
My mother has always raised hens. Her reasons were very practical ones, ' They are good egg providers and in a household you always need eggs '. ' Kitchen or garden scraps just don't get wasted when you havehens ' . ' Chicken manure is the best manure for your garden soil '. But, she never added, ' they are so entertaining, hysterically funny and wonderful companion pets '.

Well, I was never overly taken by them until I started to look after them myself.
Have you ever seen a hen run? They pick up their wings and dart from one end of the garden to the next. When you are heading toward there chicken coop, they know that you are taking them some treat. They immediately start to follow you and barely let you walk without darting in front of you to see what goodies you have for them. Once you empty your bucket of scraps, they dive in and start sifting through. ' Is it left over spagetti, lettuce leaves or cucumber peels? Aha! I found something nice, it's rockmelon seeds. Hey, I want that seed '. Peck, peck, peck. And, what follows is an intense level of activity.

Have you ever seen a hen dig?
These armless creatures are just incredible hard workers. They are immensely entertaining. They dig for bugs, they dig at weeds, they turn the soil. All day they are just busy little animals. If you want a natural pest free garden invest in some hens. Be warned to protect your seedlings and plants as they have no limits. The garden is open slather to them. They will did holes everywhere and peck at anything. If it tastes good you have lost your nice green plants forever.

If you think hens have no brains or don't use them well here is a story that might change your mind.

One little red hen got the taste for grapes. Any low lying vines with bunches of grapes were in her line of sight and beak. Daily she would venture toward the vines and seek out any sweet juicy berries. Once she had eaten all the low ones she started higher up. Both feet together and here comes a vertical jump. Beak open and gulp one grape down and another to go. The children would be in hysterics watching this hens daily ritual.

She eagerly eyed off a bunch of juicy grapes that were out of her vertical jump range. Looked at them through one eye with a tilted head, looked at them through the other eye with a tilted head and decided a flying jump off the patio would do the trick. Missed, somersaulted and landed on her feet, defeated. ' Oh well, I'll go find something else while I think about this one '. 

She decided later in the day it was worth another try to get to the bunch of very sweet grapes but this time she spotted the earthenware planter up close. Jumped in the planter and dived at the grapes. Was it worth the one berry she managed to get, probably, as she left satisfied.

Walking around the garden I have a superstar welcome by my grateful fans the 5 little red hens walking with me watching my every move. There is a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment raising hens.
Try it, you will be surprised.

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