Scared Chicken

We had a brush with chicken disaster last night. In the course of mowing the evil lawn, the gate to the chicken's run was closed. The chickens routinely put themselves to bed as it gets dark, but with the gate to the pen closed, their peaceful roost in Henbogle coop was denied them. Dan, busy mowing the front lawn, didn't see the commotion, and I was in the house, also unaware of the crisis.

At about 8:25, when we went out to close the coop, we could see Daisy running to and fro by the garden fence. As I got closer to the coop, I could see Zinnia and Poppy perched on the coop window. We then realized the gate had been shut. I collected Zinnia and put her in the coop while Dan caught Daisy, then collected Poppy from the window. Already in the coop was Iris -- how she got in is a mystery. Hyacinth and Marigold were nowhere to be seen.

We frantically called for them, shaking the container of scratch grain, and looked in all their favorite haunts. It getting darker with every second. Finally, I heard them in the overgrown Japanese knotweed area near their coop. We called and Dan struggled in to the overgrown mess trying to find them, but to no avail.

We finally gave up, but I have to say, I had a bad night -- I had a hard time getting to sleep, and kept waking up, listening for frightened chicken squawking. This morning, I got up at 5:45 and went out to look for them -- I was afraid to look, fearing bloody feathers littering the ground. With a cupful of scratch, I went back to Henbogle coop, calling for them.

Thank heavens, as I got to the vegetable garden I heard the anxious clucking of two frantic chickens. They were very glad to see me --almost as glad as I was to see the two of them. Marigold and Hycinth made it through a night in the rough, and all is well.