Cool Hand Luke
"What we have here is a failure to communicate."
Just like Luke, one of our Hy-Line chickens can't abide by her incarceration. On a daily basis she flies the coop; she cuts and runs; she jumps bail. Right after breakfast she flies out and traipses around the yard with impunity. During the day she'll want back in, so she can eat scratch grain. We oblige and let her in. She eats, but then promptly flies out again, the only chicken who has discovered what those wings are capable of. She never stays in long enough to lay her egg in the coop, and we have wondered where she has been laying all this time.
Yesterday, Ella and Maret were working in the garden. Behind the garden, under a juniper tree, is a big white plastic lick tub with the bottom cut out. It's the only place in the yard where a bright white chicken could feel safe,hidden and camouflaged. White in white on white. The perfect place for an escaped con, on the run, to hide out and lay a white egg, or twelve. It would have been even better if there were fifty in there.
"Sometimes a chicken just has to go her own way."
Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 08:23PM
Reader Comments (3)
Over the many years I owned horses, if I was alone with one, I would put my nose to the horse's nose and blow
and inhale. I have no sense of smell, but I knew I was missing something very elemental, so your writing about
the calves' breath struck such a cord with me. I loved sharing a moment like that with my horses, sitting quietly
on my honches, breathing and touching that soft, velvet nose with my face. You bring up such wonderful memories for me, Ned.
Penny
Oh, that was so funny! What a clever chicken. BTW which one keeps flying the coop, Minerva?
Lex, there are 2 Hy-lines: identically white and nondescript. We've named them Plain and Jane, and we employ whichever moniker rolls off the tongue at that time. So to answer your question, it is either Plain OR Jane (or perhaps it is both Plain AND Jane--which would explain the fairly robust collection of eggs in her hidey-hole).
Gary says, "just clip her wing." Good advice, we hadn't thought of that simple solution... but which chicken?