The Jungle Beyond The Run

Some time ago (maybe three or four years), when we were about to introduce new pullets to the coop, Nyel fine-tuned the broody hen end of the run, closing it off completely so that the new girls could meet the old girls but remain safe.  It was sort of a solitary confinement in reverse.  We had had trouble once before with an old alpha hen pecking a newbie to death.  Chickens can be mean.  Very, very mean.

As an introduction-to-the-flock area, it worked very well but we’ve not used it for at least a year now.  We’ve kept the area closed off and, without chicken activity each day, it has grown to jungle-like proportions, at least from a hen’s vantage point.  I decided to open the gate between it and the run and let the chickens do their magic transformation.  I figured that in a couple of weeks it would be bare dirt again.  Chickens are good at that.  (I’m sure they are part goat.)

Just Big Enough

What I didn’t think to do was to check the parameters.  So… two days of access to ‘solitary’ resulted in chicken breakouts — but only of the smallest chickens.  Both times, one hen didn’t come home.   And both times the largest hen — the Russian Orloff — was still in the run.  I looked and looked and finally found a small place at the end of the Chicken Jungle  where the hog wire fence had been bent outward leaving a hole large enough for the smaller hens to get out but bent in such a way that they could not get back in.    Looked like raccoon work to me.

Three from Three

Tom, our new mower-guy, said there were black feathers over by the rhododendrons on the north side of the yard today.  Again.  Apparently, if the raccoons can’t get in, they find a way to entice the chickens out.  And then…

The three remaining hens seem unfazed.  They have left three eggs in the south nest box each day.  But they are not very happy with me.  I’m keeping them confined day and night and without access to the Chicken Jungle until I can repair the raccoons’ handiwork.  It ain’t easy being an ailing chicken farmer’s wife!