Escape Artists

Ever since two chickens disappeared in July (leaving only a pile of feathers from a run-in with a fox or coyote, we're guessing), we've kept our birds fenced.  They have plenty of space to run around, scratch, dust, and explore but there are times when the grass looks greener on the other side of that fence.  Below is Maizie, the ring leader of their chicken escape ventures and incidentally, one of our favorite chickens.  She got her name because she's the first to eat the treats of cracked corn (maiz) we give out and she'll follow us running if she thinks we'll give out more.

Maizie has pulled her pal Amiga (a Buff Orpington) into her attempts to be a true free-range chicken. While Maizie will fly over the electric fence, Amiga prefers to walk through, letting her thick plumage keep her safe from the shock.  (We're using a lamb fence, not a poultry fence, which would have smaller holes that they couldn't squeeze through, but we ordered the fence before we lost our two chickens.)

Lately, Maizie and Amiga have joined forces with Angel, another Amberlink hen who got her name from her beautiful, perfectly white feathers.

Maizie, Amiga, and Angel atop the hay bale. 

Two days ago we came outside to see the three of them trotting across the lawn, happily exploring outside their fence.  These girls like to roost on the lamb stall walls and then fly down into the barn where they simply walk out the barn door and are free. Lately, however, Maizie has decided it's quickest to fly over the fence to get where she wants to go.  I much prefer chasing her around the yard to clipping her wings, though.  A chicken with clipped wings is a sad thing.

Yesterday, Karl and I found Angel and Amiga dusting themselves in the playhouse.  Chickens roll in dust and dirt and sand to keep parasites like mites and lice from finding a home in their feathers.  And apparently the playhouse floor was just perfect for dusting.  I asked Karl if we should just leave them there for a bit but he said, "No!  I want to play in the playhouse!"  So we had to catch them and put them back inside the fence.

Maizie, back inside her fence.  She loves to perch atop the lambs' hay bale.  Speaking of lambs and hens: they have a nice symbiotic relationship going on.  The lambs have cleaned out the chicken run of noxious weeds and the chickens have cleared the lamb stall of bugs and flies.  We just have to keep the chickens' actual feed away from the lambs because the copper in the chicken feed could make our lambs very sick.  They both love apples though, so it's fun to throw those inside the fence.  The lambs get first dibs and the chickens pick up the scraps.

Karl helped me collect eggs yesterday.  Clare's in school now and the hens are usually done laying for the day by noon.  We like to collect eggs right away to discourage egg eating among our hens.  (We disposed of an egg eater hen last weekend and haven't had any broken eggs since.)

Karl's find. 

For the past two days we've been getting three eggs from our girls and three eggs from "Jim's girls" as we call the older laying hens we've acquired.  The eggs from our girls are getting bigger.  They were pretty small to start.  The size difference is pretty obvious:

Despite adventuring beyond their boundaries, at least Maizie and Amiga are good egg layers who manage to be near their nest boxes at egg-laying time.   Several times Clare has told me, "Mom, Maizie's in the nesting box!" and she goes back awhile later to collect her egg.