Post by SSA Dr. Spencer Reid on Jul 2, 2013 12:08:28 GMT -5
We have five chickens in a backyard coop. We've had them for about a year and a half now, and the eggs are awesome, but taking care of them-not so much.
Anyway, we have two separate breeds-two Americaunas:
, who are the "Alpha" hens.
then we have two Easter Eggers:
who are smaller, and less aggressive than the older two hens. We also have one random chicken we rescued from the neighbor's backyard (they were evicted, and had a cock-fighting setup. So sad...) She looks like this:
. We think she's a Plymouth Rock chicken...we can't have roosters in city limits, and that's OK with us, because we only want five chickens, not...500. SO.
One of the birds, the larger of the Easter Eggers, which we have started to call Ginger after the lead "union" bird in Chicken Run, has managed to escape the coop several times. SO...we've been chicken-proofing the coop, and trying to keep it all wired in, but giving them enough space to roam (we have a long, deep backyard...which is fairly large for a suburb of a major city).
Fast forward to yesterday: I had sprained my ankle the night before, so I wasn't moving at ALL. O.o My mom came over before work, at, like, the crack of dawn to put the chickens out for me so my aunt could take my cousin to a doctor's appointment (For those of you who don't know, I live with my aunt and uncle, who have a son with special needs that I take care of as my job while I go back to school). Anyway, she was gone, and my uncle was at work (he usually works swing shifts as a nurse, but yesterday, he took an extra shift). My mother, bless her heart, did her best...she fed them, changed their water, and swept up their messy bedding. However, she "forgot" to roll down the wire (we roll it up at night, because we secure them in the coop for the nighttimes, since we have a problem with feral cats-including our own).
Anyway: Ginger the chicken is a Houdini bird and, once again, escaped the coop. Now, since I can't walk well, I am like "Oh *bleep* what do I do?" Now comes the funny part: Imagine me hobbling down the street, since I still can't walk "normally", and yelling obscenities at this bird who is half flying, half-hopping down the sidewalk (Normally, I would just pick her up and carry her back)...it was funny.
Finally, a neighbor lady came out and managed to corner Gingy in her driveway, and I was able to return the hen to her coop.
Now it is war. Me vs. Ginger. Only time will tell who is the smartest.
(For the record, my afternoon was entirely uneventful, except for a few epic chat sessions...)
Anyway, we have two separate breeds-two Americaunas:
, who are the "Alpha" hens. then we have two Easter Eggers:
who are smaller, and less aggressive than the older two hens. We also have one random chicken we rescued from the neighbor's backyard (they were evicted, and had a cock-fighting setup. So sad...) She looks like this:
. We think she's a Plymouth Rock chicken...we can't have roosters in city limits, and that's OK with us, because we only want five chickens, not...500. SO. One of the birds, the larger of the Easter Eggers, which we have started to call Ginger after the lead "union" bird in Chicken Run, has managed to escape the coop several times. SO...we've been chicken-proofing the coop, and trying to keep it all wired in, but giving them enough space to roam (we have a long, deep backyard...which is fairly large for a suburb of a major city).
Fast forward to yesterday: I had sprained my ankle the night before, so I wasn't moving at ALL. O.o My mom came over before work, at, like, the crack of dawn to put the chickens out for me so my aunt could take my cousin to a doctor's appointment (For those of you who don't know, I live with my aunt and uncle, who have a son with special needs that I take care of as my job while I go back to school). Anyway, she was gone, and my uncle was at work (he usually works swing shifts as a nurse, but yesterday, he took an extra shift). My mother, bless her heart, did her best...she fed them, changed their water, and swept up their messy bedding. However, she "forgot" to roll down the wire (we roll it up at night, because we secure them in the coop for the nighttimes, since we have a problem with feral cats-including our own).
Anyway: Ginger the chicken is a Houdini bird and, once again, escaped the coop. Now, since I can't walk well, I am like "Oh *bleep* what do I do?" Now comes the funny part: Imagine me hobbling down the street, since I still can't walk "normally", and yelling obscenities at this bird who is half flying, half-hopping down the sidewalk (Normally, I would just pick her up and carry her back)...it was funny.
Finally, a neighbor lady came out and managed to corner Gingy in her driveway, and I was able to return the hen to her coop.
Now it is war. Me vs. Ginger. Only time will tell who is the smartest.
(For the record, my afternoon was entirely uneventful, except for a few epic chat sessions...)
