Every morning, before the sun rises, I fill the chickens’ feed bin with fermented feed and let them out of their coop. Some come running out while others swoop out with a flap of their wings. A few chickens tend to follow me to the run door. The others go for the feed or start looking for bugs.
Once the sun comes up, they get really active. Whether they’re getting excited about finding some bugs or they’re laying eggs and singing the egg laying song, they seem to always be making noise unless they are resting or sleeping. They get really loud when feeding time comes around. I guess that don’t want us to forget to feed them?
On Friday, I went through my regular routine with the chickens and went on with my morning. Later in the morning, I let out the dogs and heard a very loud screech and a big commotion. I ran out to see Wyatt with one of my black hens pinned down. His nose was pushing down on her. I thought the worst. I told him to release her, and he immediately let her go. I scooped her up and realized that the chicken run door top was open. (We have a split door.) Wyatt went after a brown hen, but she was able to get to a spot where he couldn’t get her.
She was safe, so I stuck Wiley inside the house. The black hen was still in my arms as I hadn’t been able to check her over yet. I got the chicken run closed up tight and checked the hen over. She was perfectly fine other than being a little startled by it all. I put her in the coop and went to get the brown hen who was hiding from Wyatt. She was okay and happily went back into the coop.
It was then that I realized there were two more hens trying to free-range. At this point, I was able to get Wyatt into the house since my hands were empty. I rounded up the final two chickens (a grey and a brown) and got them safely back into the coop. I honestly expected to have a difficult time rounding up the grey chicken as both greys are normally very difficult to catch, but thankfully, they both recently started laying which made her much easier to catch. Whew!
Once I knew that they were all okay with no injuries, I gave them a few extra treats. I thought for sure that I would have low egg production for a few days after that crazy morning, but it wasn’t a few minutes before one of them was already in the nesting box laying an egg.
I still don’t know how that door came to be opened as I know I latched it. I’m amazed that none of the chickens were harmed as both Wiley and Wyatt have extremely high prey drives. When I saw Wyatt with the one hen, I thought for sure that I had lost her. I’m so thankful that it ended the way that it did with healthy, happy hens.
