Feathers were flying…

My niece and nephew spent last night with us because they didn’t have school today. They also were able to spend today here and we had such a fun day – doing craft activities and playing the Wii. One thing that I said that I was hoping that they’d help with, was to help me do the chores. I knew the dogs were going to be excited when they saw some kids running around outside, so I decided that I’d leave them locked up until we got the chickens fed. My nephew woke up early and said that it was time to feed the chickens. After I explained to him that even the chickens weren’t awake yet, that he had to go back to sleep. After a long hour waiting for it to get light outside, out we went to the chicken coop. The chicken chores went well and then we let the dogs out. They were too excited when they saw the kids, so we stayed in the barn and locked them outside when we fed the cattle. I promised that we’d go back outside later and see if the chickens laid any more eggs, so in the afternoon out we went to see if they really did lay any more. The dogs weren’t anywhere in sight, otherwise I would have locked them up. Well the chickens did lay quite a few more eggs and everything was going good. I saw that the chickens could use some more water, and after I gave them a little bit more – I threw the pail outside. I think the dogs heard the pail bang on the ground and that meant that we were inside the brooder house. Because as I just opened the door to walk outside, out of the corner of my eye I saw this blur rounding the corner. The next thing that I knew, Apollo ran right beside me and ran inside the chicken house. What?!  For an instant I looked at my nephew and he was looking at me. I felt like I was on one of those movies when they talk in slow motion because I heard myself say.. ‘Oh nooooo’ (but in slow motion – weird) Then everything broke loose. Apollo was jumping up trying to catch any chicken that he could get close to and the rest of the chickens went CRAZY! The chickens went from one side of the shed and then right behind them was the dog. Then they ran to the other side and the dog was jumping in the air trying to catch something or anything!  While Apollo was after the chickens inside the shed, the female dog was standing outside the screened window, barking and trying to bite anything that got close to the screen. It was like a nightmare! With all the dust flying, I finally caught Apollo by the collar and yanked on it. I admit it might have been a little bit too hard because he made a really bizarre gurgling noise that came from his mouth and he stopped cold in his tracks. Out he went, and both dogs ended up getting locked up for the night. No one ended up getting hurt in the deal, but I’m thinking that maybe we might have just a few less eggs in the morning.