Feathered Friend Friday: The Escape Artist

Yesterday I was sitting at the computer when I heard David come in the back door. He said, "Look what I found running around in the garage." Before looking I asked, "Did you bring it inside the house?" because I was thinking it would be some kind of critter I didn't want in the house! He said yes and told me he was holding it, so I figured I'd go take a look.

One of Ellie's chicks escaped! We had been keeping them with Ellie in the brooder, but they've been really wanting to get out and run around a bit. Yesterday I let them out into the enclosed room their brooder is in and apparently one of the chicks found her way out somehow. But that was only the beginning of her antics.

Just before all hell broke loose.

David put her back in the run with Ellie and the other chicks and since it was getting close to dusk, I tried to round them all up to place in the brooder overnight. If you've never tried to corral five one-month old super fast chicks just let me tell you - they are nearly impossible to catch. Really, it could be an Olympic event. In my attempts to grab Feather Legs (the one who had escaped earlier), she somehow made her way out of the brooder room into the big run where all the chickens and guineas were. Uh oh. So I chased her around there for a while with no luck and was starting to get really frustrated and hot and sweaty (it was a very muggy 90 degrees). But that still was only the beginning of her antics.

As if it wasn't bad enough that I was running after a tiny chick in a big run, she managed to find a hole in the fence she could fit through and was sprinting through the open woods across the creek! Good lord, I just about lost it. After a few tense minutes, David and I somehow got her back through her escape hatch into the big run and chased her into an enclosed area where I was able to snatch her up. Phew. I put her in the brooder and shut the door. But I still had four more chicks to catch and Feather Legs got everyone riled up so much that one of her sisters decided she'd escape into the big run as well, just to test me I'm sure.

I managed to outsmart this one quicker than Feather Legs, so I caught her and returned her to the brooder. I was able to grab the other chicks fairly easily (in comparison) and locked everyone up along with Ellie for the night. Needless to say, they are not coming out of that brooder until they are much bigger.

~Tammy, chicken wrangler extraordinaire