Demanding Chicken

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Fontella Bass, our half-tamed chicken who sleeps in the dining room in a dog crate for safety is remarkably and somewhat irritatingly demanding. She makes a racket in the morning when she hears me come downstairs until I take her out on the back porch, open the crate door, and put food out for her. In the summer, she kept me from sleeping late as I could hear her clucking and I felt guilty about making her stay in her crate after the sun was up. Unless you’ve experienced having a chicken fuss at you, you can’t imagine the delight that switching over to daylight savings time in the winter has been. Now I can snuggle back under the covers for an extended snooze, knowing that Fontella, too, is on a different schedule. I sure hope she doesn’t learn to crow.