Funny Chicken Story

Many of you already know this story but for those of you who don't here you go. I think I have mentioned before that I have wanted to get chickens for several years now but we would never get around to making a coop and so another year would pass and no chickens. But the more I read about chickens the more I wanted them. Now my husband was pretty sure that this was just a phase and if he could put off building a coop then surely the phase would pass. Maybe, but one day several weeks ago as we were returning home from a trip from parents, Becca said" I just saw a chicken in the woods." as we were turning into the driveway.

Both Dom and I were like no way you saw a chicken. It must be a young turkey.

After getting settled Dom asked Becca to show him where she saw the chicken and he and the girls headed across the street to check things out while I fed the dogs.

They returned a little while later confirming that there was in fact a chicken across the street. Now we do live in a very rural area but there are no houses across the street and no one with chickens close by so where did she come from?? They had tried to catch her with no success.

So we left her to her own devices as we got on with the rest of our evening.

The next day Dom and I were walking the dogs when he asked me if I thought that the chicken was still around. I doubted it with the woods full of wildlife just looking for a tasty dinner after a long winter, but sure enough that hen was still in the same area of the woods!

We brought the dogs into the house and Dom grabbed his fishing net. We were going to try to catch the chicken. Now I wish that I thought to grab the video camera because it was quite amusing to see my husband chase after the chicken with a fishing net. He managed to catch her and get a good workout all at once.

Of course now that we had caught the hen what were going to do with her?

Luckily we have a double decker rabbit hutch and we stuck her in the bottom.

Now what?

Well I decided to keep her of course. This was obviously a sign that I was supposed to raise some chickens.

Or was it a sign to have a chicken dinner....

Anyway we kept her and now there was no choice but to build a coop of some kind. There was also the fact that chickens are flock animals and you really need to have more than one.

So my husband and I set about converting a doghouse into a mini coop with an attached run.

I then attempted to attend a chicken swap only to get rained out in the hopes of finding a friend for our new hen Luckily my parents neighbor was kind enough to provide us with another hen free of charge. So I am happy to report that we are now enjoying fresh eggs!

I have hopes of trying to work out a way for them to do some free ranging for part of the day so they can eat up the ticks and other nasty bugs that torture us. Not sure how to work it out yet since we own two bird dogs that would like nothing more than to chase the chickens around the yard. I'll let you know if I come up with a solution.

Here is Henrietta!

This is the new addition-Henny Penny.

And this is their new home.