We knew Phyllis was special.

[schmije]

Phyllis is a 10 week old barred rock pullet. From the beginning she stood out from the others. She is the most friendly of the bunch, and she's not afraid of anything. We've thought for a while that she won't be with us for long, because she'll surely make friends with the wrong dog, coyote, coon, etc. We started letting the 14 little girls free range for a few hours each day a couple of weeks ago. While everybody else was cautious, Phyllis walked right up to our two dogs, the cat and the four big girls who live in a separate coop. Luckily for her, they've all been friendly. We often found her much farther from the coop than the others. We believed more than ever that she would be the first to disappear.

Last week we learned that we have a large owl living in the woods behind our house. Nine of the little girls didn't come home that night. Surprisingly, Phyllis was one of the five that survived. As a result of the owl attack, the little girls are now confined to their coop and covered run.

Tonight I went out to close everybody up for the night, and there were only four little girls in their coop. I looked all over the coop and run - no Phyllis. She was definitely in the run an hour earlier when I gave them a strawberry treat. I decided to close up the big girls' coop before I searched for Phyllis. Lo and behold, Phyllis was roosting with the big girls! Somehow she escaped from her run and moved in with the big girls. I only hope they won't pick on her tomorrow morning.

 

[bird]

Thank God that she is OK

 

[Iluvmypeeps]

That is so cute!

 

[Serrin]

Some souls just cannot be restrained!

Keep an eye on that one. She's likely to give you more moments of increased heart rate than all the others combined!

 

[b.hromada]

Awwwwwwww.

I'm glad you found her okay.

 

[schmije]

Apparently Phyllis has some pull in the chicken world. This morning I checked on her, and she was perfectly fine hanging out with the big girls. DH went out to open up the coops a couple of hours later, and she walked straight from the big girl coop to the little girl coop and hopped right in. Then she proceeded to tell the little girls all about her slumber party with the big girls.

This afternoon all but one of the little ones managed to escape from their pen, so we opened up the fence. At bedtime Phyllis had two followers when she went to roost with the big girls. I moved the two remaining little girls into the big girl coop as well. Cross your fingers that nobody gets picked on tonight. If all goes well I'll have an empty coop that's all ready for a new batch of peeps! We were planning to move them anyway in the next week or two to make room for some peeps. Phyllis must have read our minds!