Hen Chronicles: Perfecting the worm toss takes practice

Like any sport, the earthworm toss takes practice. At least, if you really want to perfect it.

I was digging up one of our compost bins the other day, so I could dump some into a garden bed before planting garlic there. With almost every shovelful, I turned up one or two worms that seemed to be semi-comatose, now that fall has arrived here in central Maine.

The compost bins are only a few feet from our chicken coop and run, and the girls were keeping a close eye on my work. As any chicken owner knows, hens will eat just about anything, but they do have their preferences, and earthworms are on the short list.

At first, I walked over to the wire run whenever I found a worm and dropped into the pen, but that really slowed things down on the composting front. So I quickly decided to simply toss worms into the pen, from a distance of about 6 or 7 feet.

The first toss fell just short of the pen, causing a frenzy of activity as the girls tried to reach the worm. So close, and yet so far. The second toss overshot the pen, sending the hens scurrying to the far side of the run, where, clucking angrily, they all bobbed around in a vain quest to get the worm.

Finally, on the third try, I got the range right. The worm plopped into the pen, where its life was quickly snuffed out by Snow, our bossy white hen. More tosses followed, all of which hit the target.

Those worms may have met a cruel end but, thanks to the girls’ gluttony, they didn’t suffer for long. In fact, I haven’t seen the hens that excited since they dug into their last helping of blueberries.