Adding Chickens Part 2

After returning from the horse show, Greg checked on Henry who was inside the coop.  When he saw Greg, he came out of the coop and heard the other three chickens who had survived the night and were milling around outside of the coop.  He tried to fly away and even with his wings clipped, somehow managed to make it over the fence......directly into Gauge's line of vision.  Gauge grabbed the bird, but released him after Greg chased and scolded him.  All four chickens flew/scampered/ran into the woods in the dark.

Sunday morning, three chickens were spotted in the woods behind the house, but were not seen again during the day.  We were certain that they had been or would be eaten by coyotes.  However, after returning from grocery shopping at 6 pm.  The three chickens were outside the goat fence and appeared to be trying to get inside.  We we able to catch all three and clip their wings fairly easily.

Tonight, the three hens are sleeping inside the coop and I am fairly certain that the rooster has been eaten.  If the chickens decide to stay for a while, I might name them, hopefully all girl names.

Adding Chickens

Sounds simple enough, right?  Not in this case.

We have been wanting to add chickens to our menagerie for a while now, but the timing has not been right.  On Thursday night, we were finally ready for our chickens.  We went to a friend's house to pick them up.  That is where the fun began.  We had to go after dark so that they would be roosting (this should have been a sign).  We then had to close up the barn so that they couldn't get out when we tried to catch them.  Next, we chased them with fishing nets until we caught a few.  We were hoping to catch six, but gave up after a while and came home with four adolescent hens.

Because the hens were not tame, we decided to cover the top of the chicken area with bird netting until they became more familiar with their home.  On Friday morning I covered the pen with the netting and released the chickens.  All seemed to be going well until Moose noticed them and began wagging around the fence.  This frightened the chickens, who tried to fly.  Three of them hit the netting and came back down.  One found a hole and escaped (very smart to join the dog that it was trying to avoid).  I was annoyed, but OK with the fact that I still had three chickens and I hoped to catch the escapee at dusk when Greg returned and the others had decided to roost for the night.  The three remaining chickens seemed content all day and were pecking around the fence at 7:00 pm.  I researched "How to Clip Chicken Wings" and was prepared to keep my remaining chickens in the fence.  At 7:45 when we went out to shut them in for the night, only one was roosting and the others were gone.  Frustrated, I clipped her wings and decided that she was the smartest of the bunch to roost in the coop within the fence.

Saturday, during some downtime at the horse show, Greg and I were discussing the chickens.  I said that I thought our remaining chicken deserved a name and suggested "Henrietta".  Greg kind of giggled and said "How about Henry?".  I gave him a puzzled look and questioned "For a girl?", at which point, he laughed and stated "I'm pretty sure she cock-a-doodle-dooed this morning when I let her out".

Seriously?  Our one remaining hen is a rooster?