This site is an archive of ChiotsRun.com. For the latest information about Susy and her adventrures, visit the Cultivate Simple site.
Thank you for all your support over the years!

Crazy Chicken

March 11th, 2014

Two nights ago when I went out the chicken coop to count the birds, our Buff Orpington chicken (aka Big Ginger) was nowhere to be found. It’s really strange for Big Ginger not to be in the coop, she’s always the first one to roost up in the evening, sometimes she’s in the coop roosting at three in the afternoon. We looked and looked everywhere and she couldn’t be found. There was no evidence of foul play and I had spent most of the day outside so I would have heard any commotion from a predator attack. Plus Tara would have barked or alerted.
big ginger chicken 1
The next morning, she was standing out in a wooded area behind the house. Then I came up with a theory about what had happened. She ventured over the hard snow in the morning but then didn’t want to walk on the soft snow in the afternoon. So she roosted in a pine tree on her little island of earth surrounded by snow. The following night she was in the coop at three.
big ginger chicken 2
It was just a theory until yesterday when the same thing happened again. She got stuck on the little island once again. I had to go out and chase her over the snow so she could head back to the coop for the night. I’m glad she wasn’t nabbed by a predator, but it would be nice if she was a little smarter!

Anything funny happening in your garden this week?

10 Comments to “Crazy Chicken”
  1. Greg on March 11, 2014 at 7:18 am

    That’s really funny. I’ve heard that chickens are not too smart, but she did survive the night. Good for her!

    Now, you said this:

    “There was no evidence of foul play…”

    But didn’t you mean, “There was no evidence of FOWL play”? ;-)

    Reply to Greg's comment

    • Susy on March 11, 2014 at 8:02 am

      I almost typed “fowl” :)

      Reply to Susy's comment

  2. kristin @ going country on March 11, 2014 at 8:07 am

    Chasing chickens is an exercise in frustration, for sure. We don’t have chickens anymore–for a lot of reasons–and I can’t say I miss the attempts at herding them into their coop when they were being, uh, bird-brained.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  3. Nebraska Dave on March 11, 2014 at 8:43 am

    Susy, nope nothing funny here. We experienced a 74 degree day yesterday. It was wonderful. However, today will be more like Nebraskan March weather with 45 and rain. It was so torturous yesterday having such nice weather and frozen ground in the garden. I’m soooo ready to be out scratching in the dirt.

    Have a great chicken roosting day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  4. Songbirdtiff on March 11, 2014 at 9:09 am

    How funny! Nothing that interesting is happening in my garden these days. Just cleaning and getting ready for spring planting. Its getting quite warm!

    Reply to Songbirdtiff's comment

  5. Sara on March 11, 2014 at 9:31 am

    Glad she was only a victim of her own silliness! Our yard melts very unevenly and it’s been a slapstick comedy of chickens trying to hop to get to the sunny dry spots. They are so funny (and so not-smart)!

    Reply to Sara's comment

  6. Chris on March 11, 2014 at 12:46 pm

    I too got a chuckle out of (no foul play) :) I guess that’s where the term “bird brained” came from, although she can’t be that dumb…who wants to walk over a pile of soft snow and sink?
    Think Spring!

    Reply to Chris's comment

  7. judym on March 11, 2014 at 1:11 pm

    Our girls were out for a nice day yesterday. They were so excited! To get all the ladies to come in, we just shake a canister of feed and they come running. They follow in an almost straight line back to the run. When Hubs goes outside working, they will follow him around the perimeter of the house expecting to hear that sound! We do have one girl that always hangs back from the rest when we gather. Everyone else is home, but she’s the one we end up having to carry to the coop. At first, it was just plain stubbornness, now we think she just likes to be carried in. Such fun to watch these critters!

    Reply to judym's comment

  8. Missy on March 11, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    “Foul play”
    I caught that. =)

    Reply to Missy's comment

  9. Deairdre Miller on March 11, 2014 at 10:30 pm

    What a goof!

    Reply to Deairdre Miller's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

Admin
Read previous post:
The Final Product

People keep asking to see photos of the quilt I've been working on. Now that it's finished I can finally...

Close