Well, believe it or not, Stella broke out of the layer coop and main yard. I opened the coop this morning and she was no where in sight! The pop door was still closed. I returned to the Icelandic yard and there she was nibbling on grass and eyeing the donkey feeder in the next pasture! I was completely baffled but finally figured out how she did it. It took a bit of crack investigative work and review of surveillance video but the case has been solved. Here is how she did it and how
I proved it.
DETAILS:
Last night she was moved to the layer coop just before dark and the closing of the pop doors on both coops. The timing of this escape had to be perfect or she would have been left out in the cold as raccoon bait. She must have exited the pop door in the layer coop before it closed, found this little opening above the gate where the net isn't attached, flown up and through the hole, run down to the barn coop just in time to make it in before that pop door closed!
By now you are probably asking yourself how I know she was in the barn coop last night and didn't just spend the night in the yard. (or you're bored to tears and have stopped reading entirely) Either way, here's how I know. I had videotaped the barn coop pop door opening this morning! I ran back into the house to download the video. At first I didn't notice it, but with some high tech video enhancement, I was able to locate and identify the perpetrator.
Stella came to us a wild child and will more than likely leave us the same way. You just have to pick your battles and, in this case, I have been outwitted time and time again by a chicken. So I am giving up, throwing in the towel, crying uncle, waving the white flag. I surrender.
