The chicken does not always stay in our yard. Sometimes it flies over the fence to bug our neighbors as well. Hudson was quite afraid of the chicken at first. Now, she doesn't bother him.
For the most part, the chicken doesn't create a problem other than making Hudson nervous. Honestly, I'm surprised that Mac and Bandit haven't managed to eat it.
Apparently this chicken is quite clever, both at keeping from getting eaten and at finding a cozy spot to lay her eggs...which are on my back patio chair!
A few days ago Evan comes running in from the backyard all excited and shouting for me to "come see this." I informed him I was not moving my butt off the couch. Again, he squealed that I "had to see this." Finally, I asked him what was so exciting. (Usually Evan's excitement does not match up to whatever it is he wants to show me. The item in question is usually quite dull or uninteresting...to me at least!)
Evan then yelled, "There's a chicken on a chair!" Um, okay. That was enough to get me to go outside and look. And sure enough, there was a chicken sitting on one of our lawn chairs underneath the covered patio.
Went I went to the other side of the chair to get a better photo, I saw two eggs poking out from under her feathers!
Evan and Hudson were PETTING the chicken. I had a fit and made them wash their hands twice.
The chicken then proceeded to sit in our chair for the next three days barely moving. I was worried I was about to be the mother of two chicks. I have no desire to have chicks at this house. None.
Eric called Animal Control, and they were supposed to come out yesterday, but we weren't home. They came today and took the chicken away. Look at what they found:
Eleven eggs!!
And apparently she laid one more egg in the cage before the Animal Control guy got her to the truck!
I do feel bad that Dinner (what we affectionately named her) is probably going to meet her demise sooner rather than later. However, I don't have need of a live chicken at my house. We are not country dwellers. This isn't Chowchilla!
I am still amazed that neither dog seemed to notice or care that she took up roost in a chair in their backyard. Pretty crazy chicken week!
Heather. You should have kept it!! I'm so jealous. I would have loved this opportunity. It's amazing that your dogs were cool with the little lady. That's rare. Fresh eggs are the best. I have a customer that raises chickens and he brings me farm fresh eggs every week. There was a great article about chickens being raised in the city limits in the Bee just a few weeks ago and Sunset.com has alot of great resources concerning backyard chickens. I'm seriously thinking about this myself. I grew up in the middle of town right on Kings Street. We had chickens being that my mom was from the "old country". When she went back to school we got rid of them. I hear that they are a bit of work but when I think of the practicality of them (a small number - maybe 3), it outweighs the cons. My neighbors across the street have chickens... I need to go talk to them...
ReplyDeleteToo bad she's gone. Those eggs look great!
Yeah, ditto Miriam--I was just talking to some friends today about some other friends who have some pet chickens and they get fresh eggs all the time! So good! What did you do with the eggs? I hope you kept them. Anyway...that's a fun little experience even if you didn't want to keep the chicken around.
ReplyDelete