sorry its so long
With all of the pig problems of the past week I forgot to pass on my other fun news. Our barn attaches to our house so in the winter there are no long trips out for eggs or feeding and such. Every morning I go out thru the barn to the front section and into the meat bird room. The door to get in there is right next to the door to the outside. (It’s an odd setup and kind of hard to explain) Well this Sunday I went in to clean all the shavings out, well the roosters have always been very accommodating and stayed right in the coop even with both there door and the outside door open. (Our birds do not have a free run of the yard as we live only 8 feet back from a very busy road and I don’t want them squished. they have a fenced in yard)
Well that day was bound to be different as it started out with me sitting in the river (another long story). I left both doors slightly cracked as I scooped shavings into buckets and carried them out to the tractor, all was well until I went to put in the fresh shaving bundles, tripped and dropped a 25 pound bale onto the floor causing a very loud thump and scaring two roosters up over me and out of the coop towards the door. I could see in there eyes the rush of freedom as they formed a plan and executed it with brilliance. I went to grab them and again stepped on my bootlace tumbling forward and hitting the door which in turn hit the outside door flinging them wide open. I managed in my awkward stumbles to fall between one of them and the door blocking his escape but the other..... Well......... FREE BIRD.... I dropped the first roo inside the door shut it and began talking to the now outside rooster, in a loving and caring manner in hopes that it would be insisted to come back into the barn. He was having none of it.
after several min of trying to talk him inside I got the bright idea that I could catch him.
The chase was on, down the driveway, up the driveway, over the stone wall, down the lawn, up the lawn, across the garden, (at which point I believe he stopped of a quick snack) back up to the house past the pigs down to the hens and to the end of the lawn. Now I got him I thought to myself as he was at the end of the lawn at the edge of a 20 foot drop in the river. He still had a trick up his sleeve that I should have seen coming...... Chickens can fly....... And fly he did, across the river into the waiting tree branches. That’s where the chase ended, as I have stated earlier I started the day in that river and wasn’t about to go in after a chicken and end up in it twice, in the same day. On my walk of shame back to the house I looked up only to realize that my entire family had been watching me chase said roo for the last 20 min all over the yard and were laughing to beat the band. I thought that we had lost a roo as well this weekend.....
Well this morning I went out side to open the hens’ window and who was standing there to greet me, but the roo that took off on Sunday taunting me to chase him again "egging me on" if you will. I didn't fall for it. I put our some feed in a small dish said good day and left him to his own devises. He has earned his freedom and will not end up in the freezer. I can respect how hard he worked to earn it.
Topic: Runn away hens (Read 2695 times)
