Our flock having fun

We bought 2 bales of straw today for the chooks n ducks. I haven't done previously as I like to keep the ground where the food is clear so it's easily sweepable to ensure no rodents come lurking. Since having our ducks and the damper weather started, we enclosed an extra pen area rather than letting all the birds freerange in the garden. Well, the ducks had muddied it so much with their big splodgy feet so I covered the mud with straw, put some in the hen and duck houses as extra bedding and put the spare bale and a half in the small enclosed (dog proof) hen pen. They've LOVED it, scratting about in what was on the ground, pulling strands out of the bales, climbing on top of them....they've had an enjoyable day. We even gave them some mealworms as a treat as they haven't had any for a couple of weeks. I even took poorly Lizzy out to the pen as she's feeling a bit better but I think she's more of a people hen than a chicken hen as she wasn't very friendly with them yet snuggles down with me on the settee. She was out for an hour then came back in for some TLC but had even more of a spring in her step so as long as the tumour grows no more and she can eat and drink all right, I may put her in with the flock one day soon.