Chicken Runs

I'm in charge of the hens, with son and his gf on holiday in Spain. So of course, what happens, but one of the hens decides nip down to the shops after dark - did no-one tell her 24 shopping hasn't reached this village yet?


Of all the meat shops in all the world...

When I (accidently) caught up with her the next day, she was outside the butcher's shop and they were feeding her bread - stuffing her in advance?

Anyway, was I going to catch her, when I had a lunch appointment? Nope. I left her there, adding touches of sage and onion to her bread, went out and stuffed my face (beef pie), then came back with sheets to throw over her. Of course that worked a treat - lure her on to the path with grain, hurl the sheet - no problem.... except she's a darn sight faster than I am, and scuttled back into the undergrowth quick as you like. I managed to lure her out with food well enough, but she's fleet of foot, guzzled and raced off again. So much for cornering her.

In the end, she forced herself so far into the undergrowth, she got stuck. I was able to grab a wing feather, and with much scratching of my hand, able to work my way gingerly up her wing, then get her neck, and pull - gently!! At one point, her neck did get wedged in the fork of a branch. She pointed this out to me rather noisily, and just in time, at which I extracted her without damage, popped her into a box, and carried her home. How pleased she was to see her sisters again! How they asked her about her adventures! How they all went around the enclosure perimeter, picks and shovels over their backs, in their tireless attempts to tunnel out of Colditz.