Walking nest box and the mystery of the one- sided escape

[Cleoandclover]

Today when we went grocery shopping, we put the chickens in their indoor dog- crate turned coop. When we came back, May was perched on the rim of the dog water bowl, taking a drink, so I thought that Cleo must be out, too. I heard her calling from my bedroom so I thought she finally followed may's lead and laid an egg and was in the crate. At last I was looking for over- due library books in my room and happened to look in the pen, so I noticed that cleo was nowhere to be seen, but I still heard her calling and I also saw that the nest basket was overturned and was scooting around the floor of the crate. I realized that in May's haste to escape the crate when she discovered the flaw in it's defenses, she overturned the nest basket on Cleo, as Cleo normally slept in the back of the crate after pulling some hay out, as she is far less dominant than May. I could not stop laughing!

 

[kaybats]

 

[sumi]

Poor Cleo! But yeah

 

[kaybats]

I had a similar situation a couple months ago. The March babies were ready to get out into the transition box (an extra large dog create within the coop) I use those shoebox size plastic bins for a lot of stuff, like an extra feeder. (They are cheap and easy to clean and portable)

Well, they had been out there for a few days already at the time and all was going just fine. Then one morning, during my usual head count, I saw that one of the babies was missing! How in the world could she have gotten out?! They were big enough not to be able to get through the bars and there were no signs of a breech in "security".

Those bins are not completely clear to begin with, and with use they become less clear. I felt a little silly, because I was running around frantic for at least 15 min looking for her. Only to catch out the corner of my eye that the shoe box was upside down and had become animated!

Yup. The poor thing had gotten trapped under there somehow. It's funny now, but I was sure frightened. It's amazing though how much I have learned from actually having experience with my precious birds. So many things I have learned to "check" before I go over the deep end!

 

[theoldchick]