Lovin' Our Chickens!

chickens in....

We forgot to close up the chicken coop last night. This morning our little flock were all out about roaming the yard. A quick head count found all eight well and accounted for.

I'm thanking our Camp Kreitzer guardians, St. Michael and St. Joseph for keeping the foxes and the raccoons away last night. A fox will take one off, but raccoons will kill them all even those he doesn't eat.

So the problem, since we are going out later. How to get them all back into the safety of the coop?

I proceeded to use bribery. I went to get a container full of chicken treat. When I came out of the house and started to shake the container with their treat, they come running. I always feel like the Pied Piper when I bring them their treats. And they followed me enthusiastically into their pen...except for one holdout, Pepper, who stopped at the door and decided freedom was better than treats. I tried to coax her in, but gave up after awhile and went back in the house.

Pepper wanted back in after awhile. She kept walking around the fenced in chicken yard clucking but wouldn't cooperate when I went out and opened a window. Then I kept having to shoo away the others who wanted to go out too.

I definitely needed a helper! Isn't that what husbands are for?

chickens out...The black and white one is Pepper, taken last summer.

It took two of us to keep the other ones from jumping out while we tried to coax Pepper back in. I finally had to close the hatch to keep all the others down in the chicken yard so I could leave the upper door open to get Pepper to finally jump in.

Whew!

We'll let them all out later and hopefully not forget to go out and lock them up tonight at dark. They don't understand that we are protecting them from the nighttime predators. It reminds me how we so often fail to realize that God's laws protect us from Satan and his minions prowling the world to devour us. May we not act like stupid chickens and run away from the One who loves us so much. Chase us, Lord, until we are back in the shelter of Your wings!

But ah, these senior moments...... I'm sure anyone watching us this morning would be laughing at the two old folks, one still in her bathrobe, chasing a chicken round and round the coop. The Barnum and Bailey circus is in town. We are thinking of applying to be clowns.