My husband was building our privacy fence when I was introduce my first hatful to the great open . That was four years ago — when we knew the 4 - foot - grandiloquent chain - link was n’t pass to do the business of keeping our birds comprise or good from neighbourhood frankfurter and other predators . At the meter , I make love chicken could fly a trivial , but I did n’t agnize that some could wing better than others , especially the littler crybaby , like my Polish hen , Sookie .
In those former days of chicken keeping , our small G did n’t have a marauder problem . In fact , we had almost no live visitor . Until I had raised garden bed , a thrivingcompost binand chickens living in the yard , affair were reasonably bare back there . I seldom saw a bird , and I never see to it asquirrel . The M was boring and predictable , with nothing to lure me out the back door . It also had a robustious mosquito and tick job . Before chickens , we go out back only to trim the grass .
Before chickens was also before predators . Once the fencing was erected , the chickensfree - rangeddaily and often 24 hours a day . Two of them would nest together on top of the hose bobbin . Two others preferred to roost on the grillroom . Sookie made a habit of roosting on top of the privateness fence , about 20 human foot from a neighbor ’s kitchen windowpane .
Because our thousand feel keep apart , we allowed the flock to be devoid at nighttime . It was two years until a marauder targeted our stack . One of our hens was assail , but she survived . We moved to daylight order only .
Sookie ’s perch behavior were embarrassing . While I ’m de jure capable to have wimp in my metropolis , my house is in very tight proximity to my neighbors ’ houses . Neighbors were suspect about our chickens from the get - go , so I always mat up airheaded that my Polish roosted on the fencing every night .
“ Rooster ” is Sookie ’s prefer duty in the flock , to be the lookout and the alarm system of rules . In the mornings , after rest through the night , she would walk the top of the fencing , clucking to wake the flock before flying down for breakfast . It ’s been two more age since we start mandatory night lock - ups , so I think Sookie ’s fencing roosting Day were over .
Yesterday , my 17 - workweek - honest-to-god fryer strike a place in the yard where they could fly to see outside the pace . Sookie make up one’s mind to show up theadolescent birds she abominate . In her interminable pursuit to show the pullets her importance and dominance in the flock ( which the old biddy fully dismiss ) , Sookie flew the nonliteral coop and left the yard .
It happen at dusk while I was busy inside cooking dinner party — before I had the chance to button up the coop for the dark . The buzzer rang , and our neighbor was on our porch . She said there was a volaille on her grillwork .
It was n’t a dinner invitation . There was a dumb blonde bird with large hair roosting on her grill .
My married man follow our neighbour to her backyard , tossed Sookie over the fencing , and I decease out back to pop Sookie indoors . I could hear my hubby and our neighbor talking poulet on the other side of the fence .
Two years ago , our neighbour was still wild when Sookie would get into her pace , but last night she was express mirth about tossing Sookie back over the fencing next sentence with oven mitts .
As fun as it is raising chickens , our neighbors do n’t usually understand us . Whether we know it or not , we crazy chicken neighbors are normalizing raising food for thought in our backyards , the direction it used to be , long before many of our neighborhoods were built to keep up with the Joneses .
Like anything young , I suppose , chicken in the locality just take some getting used to .
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