Thanks everyone. I'm afraid to open the coop in the mornings lately. She has had a good life here. She chose it! She belonged to my nextdoor neighbor when he was in HS. He got the McMurray box of 25 chicks, 12 RIRs and 12 BRs, one rooster but I never knew which he was. He shot the rooster as soon as it started crowing. The pullets started disappearing one by one. Don't know if he was eating them or what. Soon he was down to 2 hens, Rocky and her Red sister Lucy. They kept finding a way either over or under the fence that separates our yards. At first we'd put them back in their own yard but they'd never stay. They wanted to be with our hens. Seems they liked being a part of a big family? Who knows. I only had 3 or 4 hens then. Soon we realized this kid wasn't locking the little lean-to shelter he'd built for them and was leaving the door open all night. One night we couldn't find them to put back over the fence. In the morning I could hear them. They were in the bush outside our bedroom window making those morning chicken noises! They had roosted in the branches under cover of thick rhododendron leaves. We figured at this point the kid didn't care about the chickens one way or another so that night we put them in with our own. (NOW I know to quarantine. Then I had no idea and by then, they'd been intermingling anyway.) The next night they went in with ours on their own. Lucy lived a couple of years. Both had great laying careers. We tried to name Rocky Ethel to go with Lucy but it never stuck. Our only other BR had been named Rocky so this one just naturally became Rocky II. I'm sure I've got pictures somewhere. These days she's such a ragamuffin I'd be embarassed to post a current picture!
