Worms

 Last month I bought some composting worms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm, and they've been munching leaves and multiplying in a bucket in my driveway ever since. Sunday we brought a pile of them out to the hens to see how appetizing they would be. Answer: very. It didn't take long for every last one of them to be gobbled up by the chickens. Abby and I then decided to turn the soil a little, just to see if there were any worms near the surface.

The girls have never had so much fun, pecking at clods of dirt in search of worms. When one would pull out a big, juicy one, she would dart around the pen trying to wolf it down before the others could steal it from her. Everybody wins (except for the worms, I guess): the girls get a protein-rich treat while expressing their chicken-ness, the soil gets a good tilling, and it's highly entertaining to watch.