On our farm, we try to only breed Silkie chickens. We do have quite a collection of other birds, however we try not to let them sit. There have been a few that have either hidden nests on us or slipped one in under a Silkie when their coop was open for cleaning. Winter Soldier was one of those 'oops' birds. She is beautiful, a Cochin/Silkie mix - but boy is she stupid. If you can't tell by her name, she hatched close to my son's birthday and he has taken her in. Needless to say, I spend a lot of time searching for this less-than-clever chicken.
Chicken in a Hay Stack
The first time Winter Soldier was let out to free range with the big hens, she wondered off alone. I wasn't too worried, as it's generally in a children's nature to come home to roost at dusk. In the evening, when everyone else had returned home for dinner, she was no where to be found. I decided to talk a walk around the duck pond to see if perhaps she was lost.
I was carrying Baby Farmer while walking around the pond, so I was trying to be careful and not climb up on any of the dirt mounds or tree limbs around the pond while searching for this bird-brained chicken. Finally, I spotted her. She was pecking through a pile of hay that Daddy Farmer had tossed next to the pond (our holding area until our compost area is complete) during coop cleaning earlier that day. I had almost missed her, as her rust coloring blended in with the hay. Unfortunately, she was not the only thing that blended in with the hay.
With Baby Farmer on one hip, I reached down to scoop up the ditsy chicken with my free hand. It was only as I got close enough to pick her up that I realized she was standing within mere inches of a rather large cottonmouth snake. It was camouflaged with the hay so well that the only reason I saw it, was because it opened its jaw - allowing the pinkness of its inner mouth to show. I snatched my hand back as quickly as I could and started screaming for Daddy Farmer, who was still indoors.
While waiting on Daddy Farmer to fetch the shot gun, I tried desperately to shoo the stupid chicken away from the snake. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that it was even there and almost ran towards it on multiple occasions. Eventually, I managed to get her safely away from the snake and up towards the barn. With the help of Little Missy Farmer, I managed to corner her in a patch of trees and pick her up off the ground. Daddy Farmer arrived, shot gun in hand, and unloaded into the hay - finding not one, but two, cottonmouth snakes inside. Luckily, all involved - but the snakes - made it out of the event in one piece.
The Case of The Missing Chickens
The second time Winter Soldier turned up missing was a total accident. It was just this past Sunday. We had been cleaning the coops and the door between the large barn room where we keep the hay and the goat room (where Winter Soldier and Emily Shakespeare, another of my son's dimwitted Silkies currently live) had disintegrated from water damage. We had managed to push an old refrigerator against the door frame to keep any unwanted critters from getting into the goat room until we could purchase a new door this week. Now, we had cleaned the coops in the early afternoon and headed off to Rural King afterwards. We got sidetracked while out shopping and did not return until dark. We had picked up pizza for dinner as it was well past Baby Farmer's bedtime. I took the kids inside to eat and Daddy Farmer went out to put the animals up. Little Man Farmer decided to follow him to help.
Shortly after, Little Man Farmer returned from the barn alone saying that Daddy Farmer had insisted he come in and eat. As I was getting the kids settled in to eat (in front of the TV as it was too late for a formal family dinner, like we normally do), Daddy Farmer returned to the house - soaking wet - to get a flashlight. It was then that he explained that both Emily Shakespeare and Winter Soldier were missing. Now, it's bad enough that Winter Soldier was gone again, but my son is highly attached to Emily Shakespeare. She's had several near-death experiences, including a stint of Wry Neck that caused her to live in the house for five months and be syringe fed meds and water until she was finally able to hold up her own neck. He would have been devastated if she was not found.
Knowing that these two chickens were so instinctively-challenged, we could not simply look for them in the morning. Leaving these chickens out at night would be just the same as signing their death warrants. Daddy Farmer had already been searching for them for some time with no luck, so I threw on my rubber boots and headed out into the rain to look for them as well. We walked all around the areas that they liked to hide. Emily Shakespeare had been out at dusk once before and had just stopped in the nearest tree on her way back to the barn and perched on a surfaced root. I checked all the trees I could and yet, no Emily or Winter.
Soaked to the bone, Daddy Farmer and I decided to give one more look in the goat room and the larger barn room just to make sure. We searched behind the refrigerator in the goat room that stores the feed and behind the coop cleaning tools. Still, no Emily Shakespeare or Winter Soldier. Daddy Farmer moved the refrigerator blocking the door frame and we walked into the larger barn room. On the floor under a table was a replacement farm sink we had picked up from a family member but had not yet gotten around to installing. Something made me look inside of the sink and thank the stars I did! There was Emily Shakespeare, fast asleep. Daddy Farmer informed me that he had already looked in the barn, but must have walked right past her.
I told him to keep looking because if Emily was in here, so was Winter Soldier. As we were having this discussion, Daddy Farmer walked underneath the metal track for the roll-up barn door. It was then that I busted out laughing, "Honey, I found Winter Soldier and you're never going to believe this!" He started looking around, while I was still laughing, not seeing her. Eventually, I stopped laughing long enough to point above his head. He must have walked directly underneath her several times while searching for her. She was perched on the metal track, also asleep. Daddy Farmer cussed up a bit of a storm, saying that he wished he knew they were in here the entire time we were running around in the rainstorm. He got her down from her perch and we returned them both safely to the goat room.
As dumb as these chickens tend to behave, they are my son's favorites and his personal pets. I also have grown attached to them, as the experiences I have had with them - no matter how much of a pain they are - have caused a bonding. I can stand back and laugh at these situations now, but I can assure you that they were quite dreadful at the time. I am terrified to lose these hens, because I would hate to have to break my son's heart with the news of any misfortune that may come their way. I'm sure that these events are only a small chapter in the tale of Emily Shakespeare and Winter Soldier. Keep an eye out for more stories to come from these two crazy girls.
No comments:
Post a Comment