The Stray Chicken

Last week, one of the boys in the neighborhood, as he was riding his bike beside our yard, stopped to tell us that one of our chickens was loose. Bryan had just moved the coop (we move it everyday) and knew that all seven of our girls were inside just a few minutes before. He went to count the chickens and they were indeed all there. But, there was a chicken running around! We couldn't investigate because we were on our way out the door, but we didn't see the chicken when we returned home after it was dark.

The next day, I saw the stray chicken cautiously strolling around this big bush/pile of weeds just beyond our fence. Every time I got near, it would scurry back to the bush and not come out until things were very quiet in the backyard. Seth and the neighbor boys managed to chase the chicken into our neighbor's shed later that afternoon and then right before dark, we saw it return to the bush. A few days passed and the chicken didn't make an appearance. It was probably traumatized from the boys. But then very early a couple mornings ago, the chicken was right beside our coop. It stayed there just walking around the coop all day.

 

 This young chicken didn't want to have anything to do with humans, but you could tell it felt a special bond with our chickens. After a day walking beside our chickens, we haven't seen it anymore.

 

Maybe it's still in the bush and will come to visit when it gets lonely. Maybe it will wander back to wherever it came from. (To our knowledge, no one else in the neighborhood is keeping chickens.) Should it come back, and if we were able to catch it, we would try to find this chicken a loving home of its own.