Great Chicken Escape

GREAT CHICKEN ESCAPE, a funny little story from my chickens.

A few days ago when I went out to feed the chickens their snack and collect the eggs, I discovered I had a missing hen. We call her Amelia Earhart. At first, I thought she might be in the coop laying her daily egg. (She lays the most beautiful baby blue colored eggs). When she continued to be a no-show I opened up the coop and made sure she wasn’t hiding somewhere and walked around the run to check in the bushes. No Amelia. I immediately thought that maybe the neighborhood hawk had killed her, but there was no feather pile. (Hawks rip out the feathers and leave a big mess-YUCK!) Once I realized no pile existed I worried she had flown the coop! The winds that day had been gusting and the reason she was given the name Amelia Earhart, she fancies herself an aviator, I worried she had flown out. Now my next worry, the three resident dogs had been sunning themselves in the yard most of the day and wouldn’t hesitate to have a chicken lunch. I walked the yard and no Amelia (or leftover Amelia).

Undeniably I was rather upset. When my husband came home he consoled me and told me to expect the worst. I still had faith we would find her! The next day I woke with high hopes. I kept the dogs in and checked the yard, and other buildings on our property hoping she was hiding out, no luck. I ran my daily errands with a heavy heart figuring I would have to admit she was gone. When I returned I went out to the coop to collect the eggs, knowing I wouldn’t be collecting a beautiful blue egg. But, before I even made it to the gate one hen came running up first. Our Amelia!!

Obviously, I was a bit baffled. I know I checked the coop, the run the yard the barns and she was nowhere to be found. Of course, when I told the men in my family of her miraculous return, they used their index finger to draw little air circles next to their heads. They thought I was a little loony and she was never really gone.

Later that week I went out to do a weekly coop cleaning and had to move two boards that were leaning against the side of the building. They were there to block the winter winds and had a gap of about four inches between them. When I picked up the first board what did I find behind it, a beautiful blue egg and a few of Amelia’s feathers. The nosy lady must have decided to explore and got her tail feathers stuck. She had been there all day and night. Poor thing. Not unexpectedly, I removed the suspect boards and proved to the guys I wasn’t a loon!