Yesterday, I let the hens out to free-range while I did a spring cleaning in the asparagus and mint bed. The girls got right to work, eating grubs, aerating dead bits of grass, moving around leaves. Helpful. That is, all except for Snowball. She came over to see what I was doing. Such a lazy girl. Most hens kick up their own bathing areas by scratching up a loose hollow of earth. Not Snowball. She waited and watched until I had done the work for her – a nice, loamy, rock-free corner of the vegetable patch – and then she settled right in.