It rained for over a week. Drizzle. Steady downpours. Gusts of drenching torrents. Not a glimmer of sun. The chickens dislike getting wet. But they hate being crowded indoors even more. So they’d brave the rain, look around a bit and make a half-hearted attempt to scratch in the mud, and then head back into the henhouse, where they fluffed up and jockeyed for position on the perches and the nesting boxes.

We hung a cabbage for the girls, which kept them busy somewhat. It’s better for the hens to peck at a vegetable than at each other. They played cabbage tetherball. But they still weren’t happy. When I checked in on them, they clucked loudly and not with their normal cheerful tones. It was more like, “Well, do something. Get rid of this rain!” Surely, they thought, if I could bring them food then I could also change the weather. Luckily, chickens don’t hold grudges. This morning the sun finally came out. The chickens are busy outside and when I come to the gate of their pen they come running over, clucking with good cheer and asking me if I’ve found any bugs lately.

If you’ve been watching the hencam, then you might have seen a rabbit zip by. Candy lives in a hutch in the vegetable garden. In the spring and summer the hutch is kept in the shade to the side of the henhouse, so you can’t see it on the camera. But every day or so, we let her out for a “hop around.”

Candy, like many rabbits, has a wicked sense of humor. Our bunny, knowing full well that Lily the Dog can’t get into the garden, will put her nose right to the fence and taunt Lily until the poor pup is racing back and forth and barking. Candy teases the hens even worse than the dog. Her favorite trick is to wait until the girls are sprawled out sunbathing in the dirt, and then Candy races straight through the middle of them. The hens fly up, squawk, and flap about, like, well, like chickens. Candy kicks up her heels in delight.

The only hen that doesn’t put up with this nonsense is Snowball. She’s the littlest but she’s also the smartest. When Candy stops for a breather, Snowball will strut right up to her and peck Candy right on her twitchy nose. You can just about hear Snowball say, “Now behave yourself,” which Candy, of course, doesn’t.

Around here, tomatoes and beans don’t go in until June. They need warm soil and no threat of a frost. So, I’ve fenced off the part of the garden with the cold-hardy veg that are already planted – the carrots, peas, lettuce and chard – and I’ve let the girls continue to scratch around in the unplanted areas. They’ve also been allowed in the mint bed. I’ve got four types of mint: chocolate, orange, apple and spearmint. I’ve heard that mint is indestructible. In fact, it’s invasive, which is why I’ve got it in a separate raised bed. But yesterday I noticed that Candy had eaten the orange mint down to the ground. I guess the orange variety is her favorite. And the girls had scratched around the mint until the roots were showing. I do love mint in iced tea. And my mint and zucchini frittata is yummy. So I’ve surrounded the mint bed with chicken wire. The mint is protected and the chickens will have to do without their aromatherapy mint dirt baths.

The girls have been helping me get my raised beds ready for the summer vegetables. They’ve been busy in the garden. Their scratching aerates the soil. They eat up grubs and they leave fertilizer. Then again, they’ve been a bit too enthusiastic in my potato patch. Last fall I circled a section of the garden with a low fence. I’ve filled it with leaves, compost and dirt. Perfect for potatoes. The hens say it is also perfect for digging. The soil is so loose that their enthusiastic scratching sends the dirt flying a couple of feet. In just a week, my nice half-foot deep potato bed has been reduced to an inch of soil. This is why, once the vegetable beds are planted, the girls will be kept in their fenced yard. You’ll see them looking longingly into the veg garden.  Don’t feel sorry for them! They’ll still have a nice plot of loose dirt to scratch in and take dust baths. I’ll be tossing them bad bugs and weeds. Which is a fine set-up for backyard hens.