help with runaway chicken story in DC area

[DCReporter]

Hi there. I'm a writer for the local section of a newspaper in DC and I was looking for Washington region folks raising chickens in their yards. I am trying to do a story on what you do when one of them wanders off. I belong to a few neighborhood listservs in Silver Spring/Takoma Park and every now and then I see posts for lost chickens. I never find out what happens to them. I am guessing chickens getting loose is more common with the rise of urban chicken farms.

If you have a few minutes to chat, I can be reached at shina AT washpost.com

thanks!

 

[diamondzoo]

I am in Gaithersburg and have been living in DC for my entire life. I had a friend who kept a chicken, "Redie," in Palisades, off MacArthur if you can believe it. Redie would wonder off every now and then. They would get a call from a neighbor and go and retrieve lost Redie. Unfortunately, Redie, like any free roaming chicken, with enemies around, was eventually eaten by a predator. I imagine the Tacoma Park chickens met the same fate. I keep my chickens fully enclosed at all times now (I lost 7 to a predator in the spring.) We have fox, raccoon, Wiesel, snakes, and dogs after our chickens. During the day there is the Hawks.

 

[DCReporter]

hi. thanks for the reply! do you think the palisades folks would talk to me? i understand that they're not allowed in dc so i can stick to first names. poor bird!