My birds constantly amaze me, but this story was so touching that I had to share.
Our chicken run is about 20' long by 10' wide and made of 6' high chain link fence. There is no top, so after we lost a young bird several months ago to a suspected hawk, we covered the top with bird netting, the kind you put over your fruit trees to keep the birds from eating your cherries. The chickens free range now that they're bigger, so they're not confined to the run.
Last night at dusk when I went out to lock them in their coops, I found that two of the hens had managed to get themselves on top of their run, trapped on the wrong side of that netting. Our Sumatra was sitting on the top of her coop (the netting had sagged enough to allow this), and a buff orphington was just kind of lying in the netting over open space like she was in a hammock. I rescued the buff first, then turned to the other bird. I only then noticed that our bantam wheaten was also awake, perched on top of the coop door right by her Sumatra buddy. All of the other chickens were inside their coops, but our little banty was waiting up, keeping her friend company from the other side of the net. It was like she was standing vigil to make sure that her friend got rescued. It was the sweetest thing, and I still get all squishy when I think about it. Chickens are so amazing!
Our chicken run is about 20' long by 10' wide and made of 6' high chain link fence. There is no top, so after we lost a young bird several months ago to a suspected hawk, we covered the top with bird netting, the kind you put over your fruit trees to keep the birds from eating your cherries. The chickens free range now that they're bigger, so they're not confined to the run.
Last night at dusk when I went out to lock them in their coops, I found that two of the hens had managed to get themselves on top of their run, trapped on the wrong side of that netting. Our Sumatra was sitting on the top of her coop (the netting had sagged enough to allow this), and a buff orphington was just kind of lying in the netting over open space like she was in a hammock. I rescued the buff first, then turned to the other bird. I only then noticed that our bantam wheaten was also awake, perched on top of the coop door right by her Sumatra buddy. All of the other chickens were inside their coops, but our little banty was waiting up, keeping her friend company from the other side of the net. It was like she was standing vigil to make sure that her friend got rescued. It was the sweetest thing, and I still get all squishy when I think about it. Chickens are so amazing!
