Infamous Chickens

I have been helping serve kids lunch as part of a children's summer program in Greenville.  The kitchen crew has taken to giving me most of the leftovers for the chickens.  Just yesterday I came home with green beans, corn, and cut up cucumber.  However, the children's summer program ends next week and the kitchen crew is very concerned about what snacks my chickens are going to have once they no longer serve lunch.

As of this morning I am concerned too.

Mike had an early morning errand so I went out to coax the big chickens into the chicken runs so we could block them in and then safely let the baby chicks out to have the run of the coop.  I stopped and picked up some overripe eggplant to give the older chickens.  They turned up their beaks at it and followed me into the coop.  This maneuver on their part was to show me that my offering was not good enough.  So I went back to the house.

Mike suggested that they were looking for sunflower seeds but I was determined not to give in to their demands.  Instead I cleaned out the produce drawer.  They got old cherry tomatoes and spinach. These worked but only long enough for me to put up the separation partition.  When I left after completing all my chores, there were still eggplant and tomatoes on the ground.

Mike is in a hurry to mix the older and baby chicks together.  I am thinking this is not a good idea.  What if the established chickens teach the babies to turn up their beaks at my snacks of leftover produce?  What if Mike teaches them to prefer his snacks and thus him over me?  Oh well, at least my new puppy Lilly is scheduled to come home in a few weeks.  Surely I can at least get her to like me better than Mike.