I WISH I had photographs or a video of this!
The landlady's house is on the street in the front of the 1 acre property. My house is about one/third of the distance back. With the landlady's permission, my chickens range freely all over the acre. Her three Barbados sheep also roam freely everywhere but into my back yard, which is fenced. (As is hers, but never closes the gate to it.) She likes to see my chickens in her back yard.
I have to drive down the gravel access to the chain link double gate to the front, get out, open it, drive through, and close it again. Sometimes one of her sheep - the mama ewe, Baby - manages to get out and it's a real chase to herd her back through the gate. There's a chain to loop over the top gate posts to keep it closed, and lately the rain and muck and gravel has made it more tough to get the gap closed where the two sides of the gate meet. (Sometimes one of my dogs will poke his head out this gap and look soulfully at me when I depart, but he knows not to come through it.)
This morning, as I approached the gate in my RAV4, my dominant rooster, Carl, popped through it BACK INTO the yard/driveway. He was followed by Samantha, Greta and Buffy. I sat there behind the wheel, just amazed and amused at the same time. They had been in the land-lady's front/side yard, outside the perimeter gate!
When I come home from work, I am usually greeted by the sight of a slew of chickens running towards my car, which is cute enough as it is. (Running chickens, funniest thing in the world to watch!) I have to drive very slowly when I turn to drive onto the concrete pad where I park.
This time, those four miscreants trotted PAST my car down the driveway towards my house, as I sat there in park. How did they know they'd done wrong? They even headed out of sight around the house as I got out to open the gate for my exit.
When I returned, the usual flurry of activity ensued, masses of chickens appearing from the back paddock, down the side yard, around from the back, to greet me as usual. I drove around - past where I usually park - to unload the bags of feed. I am still amused by the memory of a BIG rooster and 3 of his ladies (one is his daughter) slipping through the gap between the two halves of that gate and running past my car.
This is Carl.
This is Greta.
This is Buffy.
This is Buffy when she was raising Sam, who is NOW the spitting image of her egg-mother, Rebecca, only larger. I don't have a recent shot of Samantha - yet!
This is Samantha.
The landlady's house is on the street in the front of the 1 acre property. My house is about one/third of the distance back. With the landlady's permission, my chickens range freely all over the acre. Her three Barbados sheep also roam freely everywhere but into my back yard, which is fenced. (As is hers, but never closes the gate to it.) She likes to see my chickens in her back yard.
I have to drive down the gravel access to the chain link double gate to the front, get out, open it, drive through, and close it again. Sometimes one of her sheep - the mama ewe, Baby - manages to get out and it's a real chase to herd her back through the gate. There's a chain to loop over the top gate posts to keep it closed, and lately the rain and muck and gravel has made it more tough to get the gap closed where the two sides of the gate meet. (Sometimes one of my dogs will poke his head out this gap and look soulfully at me when I depart, but he knows not to come through it.)
This morning, as I approached the gate in my RAV4, my dominant rooster, Carl, popped through it BACK INTO the yard/driveway. He was followed by Samantha, Greta and Buffy. I sat there behind the wheel, just amazed and amused at the same time. They had been in the land-lady's front/side yard, outside the perimeter gate!
When I come home from work, I am usually greeted by the sight of a slew of chickens running towards my car, which is cute enough as it is. (Running chickens, funniest thing in the world to watch!) I have to drive very slowly when I turn to drive onto the concrete pad where I park.
This time, those four miscreants trotted PAST my car down the driveway towards my house, as I sat there in park. How did they know they'd done wrong? They even headed out of sight around the house as I got out to open the gate for my exit.
When I returned, the usual flurry of activity ensued, masses of chickens appearing from the back paddock, down the side yard, around from the back, to greet me as usual. I drove around - past where I usually park - to unload the bags of feed. I am still amused by the memory of a BIG rooster and 3 of his ladies (one is his daughter) slipping through the gap between the two halves of that gate and running past my car.
This is Carl.
This is Greta.
This is Buffy.
This is Buffy when she was raising Sam, who is NOW the spitting image of her egg-mother, Rebecca, only larger. I don't have a recent shot of Samantha - yet!
This is Samantha.
