So a couple of weeks ago, I bought 11 chickens from my neighbor. That gave me 20 hens and one rooster. I was back in the egg business! I kept them locked in the coop and in a small area outside for a week, just to teach them that this was where they belonged and laid their eggs. After that, I opened the door, letting them free range as they desired.
Victoria and I were returning from a walk when Bravo refused to let the chickens back to the coop. I don’t know what he was thinking, but somehow or other, we got our wires crossed and I only had 18 hens when I locked up that night. Bummer.
A couple of days go by, it’s a cold morning and I’m building a fire in the woodstove, listening to my audiobook, when a strange noise came from outside. It sounded like a very irritated chicken in my yard. Now, I’d been to the coop and opened the hatch, but it had snowed, and the girls aren’t crazy about getting their bare feet cold. What was one doing up by my house?
I slid my feet into my slippers and went to investigate. Sure enough, under the big pine tree, was an irritated hen, squawking. I bent over to pass under the pine branches and chased her back and forth a few times til I cornered her. I unceremoniously plopped her over the fence and told her to go home. She did not go. In fact, she acted like she wanted to come back in my yard which is not a good place for a chicken to last long…
Well, I went around, chased her back and forth for a bit, then snagged her. Ok, to the coop with you!
I took off walking, scanning the ground for rocks and ice. I also noticed something else in the snow. Or the lack thereof. No chicken footprints. None outside the coop either. That hen had at least been in my pine tree overnight since the storm blew in. I put her in the coop and tried to count. Let me tell you, counting to twenty with chickens milling around in a feeding frenzy is impossible.
That night, I counted 18. Rats. Really? Bummer!
The next morning, I tried again. 18. But where did that chicken come from? One just squirted out from in back of my feed barrels. Had I counted her?
The past two nights, I have 19 because I look behind my feed barrels and count the one cowering there! She must be getting picked on… maybe coz she was gone living a good life in my huge pine tree before coming down for food! I just heard a fox barking as I type… I assume #20 was Mr. Fox’s Christmas dinner.
I’m happy to have her back, though how she ended up in my pine tree will have to remain a mystery!
Find me here!
