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with warm water as needed.
    Grit: As chickens do not have teeth, they eat sand and small stones to fill their gizzards. When they swallow food, it is sent to the gizzard, where the grinding stones pulverize the food. If your chickens range outside, they will likely find sufficient grit on their own. If they are kept primarily inside a barn, you should provide a container of grit for them to eat as needed.

    Scratch, scraps, and other treats: Chickens do not require treats, but they certainly enjoy them. Favorites include cracked corn, black oil sunflower seeds, and mealworms. You can also collect garden pests such as slugs and cutworms for your chickens, or supplement your chickens’ feed with kitchen scraps such as vegetables, leftover low-fat and sugar-free dairy products, and even unspoiled cooked meats (chickens are omnivores).

    What not to feed chickens: Avoid desserts, citrus peels, coffee grounds, moldy food, and junk food, and limit scraps to a small portion of your chickens’ meals. Strong-smelling foods such as onions, fish, and herbs should also be avoided, as they may flavor your chickens’ eggs.

June 17, 2014
    Mariposa García González
    Land of the Dead
    Querida Abuelita,
    I’m really sorry you’re dead. But I bet now you can believe in anything. And you are a good listener too. And I don’t think I need to worry Great-Uncle Jim with all this.
    This morning, I got up early, earlier than anyone else, and I went to check on Henrietta. I dumped out her old water and got her some new water, and gave her some of that layer crumble in a little plastic tub, with a few sunflower seeds, because I know she loves them. I looked in the nest boxes, but there weren’t any eggs in there (and no chicken poop either, thank goodness).
    Then I put my gloves on and got a trowel and kind of scraped the chicken poop off the floor of the henhouse into a bucket and dumped it in the blackberry bushes. (I don’t think anything could hurt those bushes.) It was smelly and gross, but no way was I going to make Henrietta sleep in there with it. I found some straw in a corner of the barn, all tied together with wire into a block, and I pulled some of it out and put it in the nest boxes and on the floor of the henhouse. My library book says you can just take out the part that the chicken poop is on and replace that when you need to. I bet the first person to figure that out was really happy about it.
    Then, when I knew Henrietta was all set for the day, and I had tidied up the edge of the junk pile so she wouldn’t trip over it, and found some dandelions in a different part of the yard and picked them for her, since she really likes them, and when I had drawn one last picture of her, I left her there and went inside to talk to my parents about her.
    I really, really tried. But when my parents found out there was a small white chicken back by the old henhouse, they insisted on calling the lady who’d come looking for her chickens, to see if it was hers.
    I reminded them she’d tried to break into the henhouse. I told them this was probably Great-Uncle Jim’s chicken. I even took them out to meet Henrietta (crossing my fingers that her water jar wasn’t empty or anything like that).
    But Mom wanted to know how I’d feel if I was searching for my chickens and someone else had them.
    I’d feel terrible. But Agnes told me not to give Henrietta away, and not to tell anyone she’s unusual. And I sure didn’t want a thief to use Henrietta’s powers for evil purposes. I had to find a way to keep her.
    But Mom talked about what the neighbors would think if they found out we’d had someone else’s livestock and hadn’t given it back right away, and I knew I’d lost, because you know how Mom is about not being seen as one of those problem people. You guys must have had a hard time when you were young, Abuelita, because even though Mom was born here and speaks perfect English, she says you have to be twice as honest and neighborly