Chicken Troubles

We get 12 to 16 eggs from our 16 chickens every day.  They have been very good and consistent egg layers, so I was very suspicious when we collected only 9 eggs the last 2 days.

A good friend of ours brought us a HUGE pile of straw bales (for free!!!) which Digger shoved off the trailer with his excavator. The result of this expedited removal left quite a mess…

DSCN6685 (640x480)-1I suspected that the chickens found some great hiding places in the straw to deposit their eggs instead of using the nesting boxes.  This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had to go egg hunting.  This is a down fall of letting the chickens free range; sometimes they decide not to go back to the coop, and around here there are PLENTY of hiding places.  I figured a quick search through the pile would produce several missing eggs, on my way to search in the straw I heard a weird chicken disturbance in the barn.  I took a little detour to check it out and this is what I found:

DSCN6673 (480x640)How she ended up upside down in the wall of the barn I will never know!

I pried her out of her ridiculous predicament and realized it was Ginger (of course).

DSCN6680 (640x480)-1Here she is looking dazed but not hurt.  Ginger is by far the most curious, and I always thought the smartest (but maybe not) of all my chickens.  When I set her down, she ruffled her feathers, glared at me like it was my fault (or maybe she was just mad cause I stopped to take a picture before rescuing her), then went about her business.  I was so glad I went in the barn….I don’t know how long she would have survived squished in there upside down…

I then proceeded to the straw pile to start my egg hunt.

DSCN6687 (640x480)-1Soon I had help…..lots of help!

As you can see we performed a thorough search, but came up with nothing.  There were several holes we couldn’t see into though, and I wasn’t terribly anxious to move the whole dang pile for some missing eggs!

It was time to head back to the house and start school, but I decided to stop by the chicken coop to collect any recent eggs.  When I opened the door our dog “Oddie” was in the coop!  I yelled and she quickly dove for the chicken door.  I had no idea that darn mutt could fit through the chicken door.  I now know where all those eggs went!

Here’s the little egg sucker, still licking her chops and looking shameful.

DSCN6694 (640x480)The only way to solve the problem was to make the door smaller so she couldn’t fit through.  We have called her “Houdini Dog” since she was a pup, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that she found her way into the coop.  She has been known to climb 8′ no climb fence to get out of a pen, and she has managed to get out of every collar we’ve ever put on her (that’s what happens when your neck is bigger than your head).

So the lessons for the day are:  Never underestimate the clumsiness of a curious chicken, and always measure your dog before you build a chicken door!

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15 thoughts on “Chicken Troubles

  1. Hahaha – I love this story! Poor Ginger – I’m sure she was more surprised by her predicament than you were! And shame on Houdini Dog, aka Oddie! Thanks for making my day.

  2. Oh my!!! Lol, I’m wondering how Ginger got stuck and upside down! I’m glad you were able to rescue her and she’s okay. I’m surprised that your dog ate the chicken eggs. I didn’t know that they would. We have a dog, but never any trouble. I better keep a closer eye on him.

  3. As I was reading I was thinking to comment “Was the chicken mad at you for stopping to take a picture before rescuing her?” And then you said the exact thing! LOL!!!

    I had a dream recently that I was caught at the bank and it was being robbed. And my mom stopped to update her FB status instead of calling the police. LOL!!!! In my dream I gave her the same look your chicken probably gave you!

    Silliness aside, we have some free range chickens, too. Some days we get all the eggs. Some days we have to go searching. At least it gives the little children something to do!

  4. Thanks for the laughs! We have a fence climbing dog, too! He’s never gotten into the coop, but I’ve got a goat that can fit though just about anything. I had to make the door to the chicken coop so small the chickens can barely fit through!

    1. Haha, that’s exactly what we did with the chicken door too, they have to take turns scrambling out the door in the morning now. 🙂

  5. I’m glad you found your chicken in time! I had the unfortunate experience of finding one hen dead and another almost dead in a similar spot. I felt terrible because they suffered and I didn’t even know it until it was too late for one of them.
    Thanks for sharing on The HomeAcre Hop!

    1. That’s horrible! It’s weird how they get themselves into these predicaments?? Thanks for visiting Lisa.

  6. I stumbled across your page while looking for seasoning for my saugage. we remember our grandmothers saugage tasteing better than store bought. i was sooooo excited when i saw your stories about your chickens. we just bought 14 peeps and 2 ducks so far ! jay has had chickens as a child growing up and we have talked about raiseing them again. of course its all new to me and i have been soooo scared about this new adventure until i met you and i am loving reading about the queen and her adventures.. you have been inspireing .thank you so much and looking forward to trying your recipes

    1. So glad you found my blog, thanks for the nice comment. Little peeps are sooooo much fun, good luck with your new chicken adventure! I am looking forward to little chicks soon too. 🙂

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