Disaster Strikes!

[ellie97]

Earlier this morning I was out in the barn, finishing up with the horses, when I thought I saw chickens outside of the chicken coop! I headed over to investigate, and sure enough, about 25 pullets, including the little 8 week olds, were gallavanting about outside the chicken coop. I quickly found their escape route. The netting on the door to the chicken coop has been torn for a few days, and I've been using a wire sheet to block it. But last night's storms knocked over the sheet, and most of my girls (and one of my boys) thought it would be fun to go play in the grass outside the coop. So I spent the next hour catching chickens. Most of them weren't too difficult, as the chickens are all hand-raised and relatively people-friendly, but on EE pullet just did NOT want me to catch her. She took about 20-30 minutes to catch. I used methods such as catching the chickens one by one, shooing them back in through their escape hole, and telling them to go back in (that one didn't work so well

). But the most effective was opening up the door completely and putting treats inside. That alone brought about 10 back in. The dogs were out too, but luckily they had just eaten breakfast and weren't too interested. All the pullets (and Charlie, the rooster) are safely back inside the coop. They should be grateful, but they just think I ruined all their fun. By the way, the reason the chickens aren't allowed to be out is because we run a therapeutic riding program at my house, and they are just a pain if not cooped up. I don't know why they had any desire to leave the coop-they have plenty of space, food and water. They have a shade tree, a "chicken igloo" made of pallets for climbing and shade, and of course the big indoor part. I'm guessing the little 8 week old Buff orpington pullets are the ones who showed the others how to get out. They are the ones who "showed" me the escape hole a few days ago. Little boogers. Well, I just felt like ranting a little. Not too happy with the chickens right now- the pullets haven't started laying, so I'm a little strung out waiting for that, and then their little escape stunt to top it all off. Sigh.

 

[BayouPoules]

Well I gotta say,.. that certainly is no disaster,..that is just plain living with chickens....... I'm glad that everyone is Ok and you can fix your coop.
Thankfully you caugt it in time before it really was a disaster.

 

[ellie97]

Yeah Seriously. I should have named it "Disaster almost strikes" haha. It was still a pain to catch them all though.

 

[coyotesmommy]

I love it!! I can just imagine running arms flaling around trying to catch and shoe dozens of chickens heehee sounds like a fun time

 

[BullChick]

One year later....
Yesterday I finished building the coop (no run yet). There is a small space at the bottom of the door leading to where the coop will be. It really was small. Apparently the door latch shifted enough during the night to allow the door to pop open a few inches. Thismorning I walked outside, waved at the neighbor and one of 20 to 40 (no one knows) cats, and saw ... Three chickens running around the outside of the coop!! I PRAYED it was some of the neighbor's chicks (we have chicks from the same batch). When I went nearer I realized they were indeed mine (we know our children, right?). Fortunately, when I opened the door to the building, one jumped in, and the dog got the other two to jump in. Further wonder of wonders, they jumped right into the coop when I opened their door. I covered the hole, but DH and I apparently have some work to do!