Friday we were "gifted" an orphan chicken. Rumor has it that some people that own an asian restaurant had some chickens in their back yard which is against the rules in the nice community they live in. Someone called the authorities and when they came to investigate, they opened the coop and let them loose before they could get back to them. They hoped they'd come back home later. Well one of them decided to take up residence in my inlaws yard for several days. They were tired of it so they called us to come get it.
James and the boys headed out at about 9:00 Friday night. Chased the chicken around the neighborhood for a while then brought it home. We left it in the dog kennel overnight and part of Saturday. I then sent the Rhode Island Reds out of the coop for some roaming time and put the new little chicken in the coop. Later, we brought them all back in and they seemed to get along. Well we let them out again (intending on keeping the little one inside). She escaped the coop, too, and flew over the fence. Henry and I chased her around and finally lost track of her. We gave up and decided she had either been eaten by a neighborhood dog, hit by a car, or found a new place.
Just in case, I posted a lost chicken sign on facebook... because I'm cool like that. On Sunday, a friend posted a pic on facebook of a chicken that had been spotted listening to the children's sermon at church that morning. The boys and I were very happy to hear she was alive and well!
We spent the rest of the day hoping she'd show back up at home.
Fast forward to Monday morning. We were in the back yard and the neighbor called over the fence that he had seen one of our little chickens, the whitish brownish one, fly over the fence while walking his dog. He told us it had ran across the street to our other neighbors bushes. I checked the food that was in the kennel (we'd left it open hoping she'd come back) and sure enough it was empty. She had come home! She was gone again but at least we knew she knew where to come for a meal. We tied the dog up so he wouldn't scare her away if... when she came back. It was long til Nelson spotted her out the window. We made a trail of feed across the yard into the kennel but she was too smart. She stayed in the shade and finally nested down in the corner of the yard. We tried to catch her but she ran through the fence. Henry and I decided to chase her one last time. I grabbed the rake and off we went. She gave us a good run and finally ran under a neighbors dumpster lid that was tilted up on the ground. I slammed it down and then hoped I didn't squash her. Oops. Turns out she was fine. Henry ran home and got a trash can and we scooped her up and brought her home. She is confined to the kennel until she gets her wing clipped and outgrows the ability to fit through the slats in the fence. I'm not sure she'll ever be that big though so we'll have to come up with another way to let her roam the yard without escaping.
So that's the story of our new little chicken. Stay tuned for more stories from the funny farm... ;)
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