Christine: almost recovered

After more than a week of sick leave, Christine has now almost fully recovered.

Christine back at the farm (Dec. 21, 2015).

For the last four days, she has been back at the farm during daytime.

For Christine's fans and for fellow chicken nerds lovers, here is the process of her recovery in more detail.

Phase one (First 3 days of her sick leave)
Christine spent most time in bed, that is, resting in her private room, not venturing out even if the door was open.

Christine in her private room.

Phase two 
Christine became more active and curious to explore her new environment.  She would talk a lot in fluent Chickenspeak, which unfortunately we haven't mastered that well yet.

"Interested in cooking?" "Naah." (I can relate.)

Unfortunately she's not potty trained, so letting her move freely around the house for too long would be a disaster.

Christine also became a bit hot, that is, uncomfortable with the room temperature. Our chickens are notorious cold lovers and the 20 -22 degrees Celsius in our apartment was a bit too much for Christine. 

This position of wings suggests Christine is being too hot and is trying to cool off. 

So the time was right for phase three.

Phase three
Christine moved to the balcony. Balcony is pleasantly cool (4-14 degrees) and offers some space for unrestrained exploration and poohing. 

Eating clover and grass salad. (Fresh from the farm. What a lucky chicken.)

Eating salad, in detail.

"So where's the soil? And the worms?"

But the balcony is admittedly a bit small, and it doesn't have the right floor (= made of soil and full of treasures like seeds and worms to discover). But by the time balcony turned too boring,  Christine was ready to move back to the farm.

Phase four

Christine back at the farm, eating komatsuna.

Christine back at the farm, from different angle.

Christine is back at the farm, but she's in a private run, separated from the rest of the flock. Reason:  Chickens as a society have some harsh rules, including the one saying that it is okay to pick on weaker members of the flock. You wouldn't want to be a chicken at the bottom of the pecking order. But that's exactly where Christine would be if we let her back to the flock now. After a few more days of rest, she will be fully recovered and healthy and will hopefully avoid "the weakest member" position. So far our chickens have been quite egalitarian and we want to keep that tradition.
Go, Christine, go!

Christine in her private run yesterday morning (Dec. 22, 2015).
The rest of the flock is in the back.

But with so much spotlight on Christine, the rest of the flock - 28 chickens and 2 roosters - is being unfairly sidelined (at least in this blog). So here are a few recent pictures:

Breakfast rush.

Breakfast rush from different angle.

Five minutes later: breakfast rush is over.

Yup, chickens are interesting folks.