Chickens are kind of dumb. If they weren’t protected by humans through domestication, I think they might become extinct in a few years. But I really like them, and not just because our chickens have given us a steady supply of healthy eggs for years. Chickens are just fun. They are not only friendly and like to follow you around, but they do all sorts of weird things just like other pets do.

This time of year our chickens free-range, but they are so used to interacting with my family, dog, and cats that they poke their noses into everything, including our house. A few days ago I chased a Barred Rock out of our kitchen after I caught it eating a plate of leftovers it had knocked off a countertop. This afternoon I found one nesting in a box of screws in the garage. I had opened the garage door in the morning because the temperature had climbed to 60 degrees.

Unfortunately, while I went to fetch my son, Jake, to show him where this dumb chicken was nesting, he had jumped out of the box of screws and broken both eggs. Maybe I was dumb! I should have grabbed the eggs first.