Tuesday, June 8, 2010

A story of the city hen and the country hen

Who said that the grass is greener on the other side?

Just over a week ago, some friends of our purchased a used chicken coop for their chicks, and it came with 2 free chickens. They really had no use for the fully grown, reliable laying hens, so they asked us if we would like to take them in. What's the harm in bringing two more chickens home when you have more than thirty already and the neighborhood coyote likes to stop by for dinner every night? So we picked up the little ladies and integrated them into our flock.

When we went to bring fetch them to their new home, a good family friend from out of state joined us. He could not get over the humor in going to the city to pick up some chickens. The whole 'chicken in your back yard' has become quite the novelty in the area, and there is quite the movement towards growing your food in the area. Stores have opened up that charge some outrageous prices for some basic neccessities, just because it is the 'chic' thing to do. (yes, the cheesy pun was intended)

Anyway... We bring the new girls to the country coop, and they moved in quite nicely. They even started laying eggs! But a couple of days ago, one of them found themselves flying over the fence that divides our property from the neighbor's dogs. Unfortunately, we only discovered her over there just the other day, and it wasn't until this morning that we were able to get her back to our side of the fence. So I grabbed a shovel and some grain. This chicken is coming back home.

To get a chicken back onto your side of the fence (the fence is too tall to jump over) you must do the following:
1) Dig a small hole under the fence big enough for the chicken to get through
2) Put down a small line of grain to 'bait' the chicken to your side of the fence
3) Patiently wait for the hungry chicken to fall for the trap
4) Quickly fill in the hole once the chicken is through. You don't want her to go back.
5) Attempt to catch crazed chicken and get her back into the coop where she belongs.

Follow these fool-proof steps and your chicken will rarely have to spend more time than is neccessary on the wrong side of the fence.

No seriously... I bet those girls had quite the 'culture shock' when they moved out here. ;)

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