# Chasing chickens



## zamora (May 26, 2015)

This may be a bit of a long story so bear with me.

Originally my husband wanted to get two or three chickens to put in a little tractor type coop in the garden. His thoughts were that after the growing season, they could help keep the parasites/bugs down and eat some of the seeds and left over vegetables AND add fertilizer. I told him that would be fine with me but they were HIS chickens and he was responsible for taking care of them. I always end up on the wrong end of these type things.

Off he goes to get some hens from a friend that was downsizing his flock. He comes home with three pretty nice looking hens. One looks to be a Buff Orpington or something very similar. The other two, I have no idea. He put them in the tractor coop and let them get used to it then let them out in the garden the next day.

All was fine in the world. The garden is fenced so they are protected from stray dogs and such but still didn't go out in the garden if we weren't home. They were such happy chickens and the garden was happy and the hubby was happy. Tra La La La La...

Fast forward to him becoming addicted and wanting more chickens. He and my neighbor tag teamed up and came home with five more hens and a rooster. That's when we started shoring up the old chicken coop. (See "The Chicken Ranch's Humble Beginnings").

All is still fine with the world until........UNTIL it's time to turn them out in the garden again. Well, we picked two hens to put in the garden that could use a little extra boost and some time away from the hens that pick on them.

That lasted about an hour then we had a chicken loose. Finally we caught her and returned her to the garden. She and her roommate were happily scratching and eating bugs so we thought they would be fine.

NOPE. Went to check on them about 1/2 hour later and they were both out. We returned those to the coop and replaced them with two more.

Long story short, the hens do NOT like the garden and I'm in pain from chasing chickens all day yesterday. I told DH this would NOT be repeated.

Off to buy a tiller..........


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## rosco47 (Jul 6, 2015)

haha good stuff...I usually just wait until dark then round'em all up


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

This is where you need to think like a chicken. What does a chicken prefer more than anything? 

Give up? Another chicken/chickens. The more the better. A flock is what they want. Chances are they can see and/or hear their flock and that's where they want to be and will do what they must to get back to them. Their coop & run is their safe haven so there is that added incentive to get back to what they know.


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

Roscoe, that makes sense except for the neighbor's recalcitrant Labradors that think they own the world and LOVE to chase chickens. Yeah, we pretty much had to catch them.

Robin, thinking like a chicken, LOL. I thought that if they had some company, they might be fine but yes, they could hear the flock and obviously that is what they were trying to do, get 'home'. It's a darned shame too, they did a great job in the garden when that's all they knew. 

Hubby already suggested getting a couple new chickens for the garden that didn't know better. I think he's lost his mind.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Thing is, the chickens in the garden will eventually work their way to the big coop and the main flock.

I've had chickens show up at my coops three times over the years. One group was abandoned by the owner, the other two were small flocks that heard mine and came over to join them. The Guineas ran off the one flock, the one that was abandoned I found a home for. The last group predators wiped out.

Sounds to me more like he has an addiction at this point.


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