I have been begging for chickens for some time now. Patrick adamantly saying "No"... or "mmm, with dumplings", "fried", "BBQ'd"... he's like Bubba from Forest Gump about the shrimp... I think Patrick could go on for days with how he'd like his chicken prepared!
We both had chickens growing up. I view the ladies as egg laying, compost eating friends and Patrick views the fowls as a really gross asphyxiating spring time chore with daily feeding and collecting in between. I always win because deep down, Patrick must love me! I began to read about the benefits of using chickens as a more natural, organic if you may, alternative to pesticides near fruit trees. I had to have them now... and I mean NOW!!!
We brought a dozen day old chicks home with us from Texas... (I know not the sort of thing you here from, well anyone) Patrick who has been against the acquisition of chicks from the beginning was only surprised that I brought them from Texas not that we finally just brought some home. However I am conceding here and now that (in this instance) he was right. We weren't ready to have chickens. We are trying to finish the backyard and the interior of the house and now we have to stop and make a chicken home!... So we temporarily housed them in the old rabbit cage and all was well. But I am impatient and couldn't wait to see the ladies scratching around and earning their keep under the apple trees. So I convinced Patrick to build the run and that the coop could actually wait. And he did... but I only gave him an hour before I started to move the chickens in and we sat and watched our chickens enjoy their newfound freedom.
I trust my cats and dog... perhaps too well. By the time we'd moved all the chickens into the run we realized that kitties can scale a fence and stalk a chicken even in our presence!... ahhh... so we watched... they seemed merely curious... I guess these birds are out of their league... We felt safe to let the ladies be while we went on with our day. I received frequent updates on the chickens from the kids so I was feeling pretty smug about my impatience until "Opus is in the cage with the chickens!"
We all ran out to check on the situation... I wish now I'd brought out my camera. Opus has taken it upon herself to be a chicken herding dog. She has no desire (well she is a dog after all...) to eat the chickens just to keep them together in a group in one corner of their new run... Forget that we built it 100' long and want them to use the entire length. Opus was VERY good at her self-imposed job. We needed to reinforce the bottom of the fence so she couldn't push her way in anymore. Caleb and I were so pleased with our work.
We woke up the next morning to a mystery.... One chicken was completely missing, Opus was inside the run obviously frustrated with one wounded chicken that wasn't cooperating by joining the group.... cound it have anything to do with the missing chunk of her wing?... Opus was in the wrong place at the wrong time!... We moved all the remaining chickens to the rabbit cage... doctored the wounded chicken, scolded Opus, and searched to no avail for the missing chicken... Not even any sign of a struggle! So we were down to 10 1/2 chickens and a not functioning too well coop! Caleb and I weren't wanting to admit to being the ones who had reinforced the fence anymore.
We left the chickens penned up in the rabbit cage for the next 2 1/2 weeks while we took two trips to Wyoming and generally became too busy to deal with the chickens.
Then Marina came to town and Uncle Jim who had worked all night arrived in the morning for breakfast with an announcement. He had just seen Opus running down the road with a chicken in her mouth. "WHAT?" She took her job VERY seriously! She indeed had a very scared but otherwise unharmed chicken #12 in her mouth and had brought it home.
It had been a few weeks since I had been impatient... so I suggested we move the chickens out to the run again and see how they fared. At the end of the day we have a wounded chicken in a separate cage, and 9 chickens back in the rabbit cage and the other two no longer exist! No one saw what happened but Opus was in the run and the chickens who weren't in the close knit group were herded a little too roughly.... I don't know what will happen next.
