The box the chickens are now living in is about 30″ tall. Vince cut three sections of chicken wire and made a wood frame around them and we keep those on top . . just in case the chickens try to escape. Up until yesterday, they had not.
Vince was out of town. I’d already been up half the night before because I hate being by myself at night; had been cooking; had been quilting and was tired and grumpy. Right before bed time, I went to take care of the chickens . . fresh water and more food. When I’m doing that, I just take one section of the “roof” off, leave it on the floor til I’ve given them fresh water and food, sprinkled fresh shavings over the tons of chicken poop on the bottom of the box.
Went into the kitchen area, cleaned their water container, filled it up, took a minute or two, walked back into the garage and lo . . what do my eyes behold? Three chickens have flown the coop! Two are perched on the top edge of the box and one is running around on the floor.
My first thought – go grab the camera; this is a blog moment! Then I thought . . if I take the time to grab the camera, I’m going to have three chickens to catch instead of just one .. so you have no pictures of my misbehaving chickens. I think they all three had intended to land on the top of the box and one had missed his mark and landed on the floor. The two still sitting on the box looked like they didn’t have a clue how they were going to get down from their precarious position. But honestly, I don’t think chickens are too smart so I’m not sure they were thinking that far ahead. I picked them up and sat them back down in the box; put the “roof” back on and went about trying to catch the third one. Not easy! I was real tempted to offer Speck a bedtime snack . . yummm . . chicken! I finally caught the little rascal and back in the box he went.
Today when I went in to get the food container out, I took the “roof” off and one little chick hopped right up on top of the water container and was stretching his neck . . Don’t even think about it! These girls may never reach laying age if this behavior keeps up!
Oh . . the life of a chicken farmer! 🙂
Pat says
Oh, my goodness…I can see it’s time for them to move outside!!! Although, I have to admit I did laugh at the picture of you chasing a chicken around in the middle of the night. Was Speck a fit from his post in the house?
pdudgeon says
LOL, i’m sure it wasn’t fun a the time, but your escapade made me laugh this morning.
Better warn Vince that the chickens are likely to fly the coop when the lid comes off.
Mrs. Goodneedle says
Will they be moving to a coop soon? This sounds exhausting to me.
Evelyn says
Ha, ha! Maybe you should just order a pre-assembled chicken coop and then Vince won’t be under the gun to build one! http://www.HorizonStructures.com/coop.asp is one place, but you probably can get one locally? Good luck! Cheers! Evelyn
Dawn says
hahahahahahaha This story sure did start my morning off with a smile! 🙂
dawn
jean says
They are just practicing….lol…they will figure it out eventually.
Karen L says
When I started reading this my thought was……….time to build the coop………I’m glad to hear you are getting better at catching chickens……oh the fun you are going to have!!!!
Karen L
carol c says
How hilarious
i am living this thru you, cause I wanted chickens but i knew i coudlnt take care of
them ……………….and 5 wild cats outside I feed, and mom showed back up with
kittens somewhere close by.
i so enjoyyour blog! do we just have step 1 of the scrap quilt?
Perry says
Funny, fuuny, funny!!! The report on your ads…funny as usual..the one on the chicken hatchery has a link to Swann’s which tells you how good their chicken is, lol!!! The first one tells you how to get an e-book that tells you how to build a chicken house and it is only 29.95, Seem I have learned a lot as usual today, lol.
Bon says
Thanks for the good laugh before heading to bed. Best laugh I had all day.
Nan says
Yeah… folks don’t use the term “Bird Brain” for no reason, do they?
Lynn Dykstra says
http://www.cutlersupply.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=648
You need a chicken hook.
Invaluable as a chicken will go in any direction but the one you think it will.