Naughty Chickens

Yesterday evening I came home from a few errands after being gone most of the day. I was planning to take the chickens outside and glanced in the spare bedroom where they live on the way to my office to put my things down. Imagine my surprise and horror to see what you see in the above picture. Somehow the chickens had knocked their lid off the box (which was just a screen placed on top of it) and had escaped into the room. They look rather guilty don't you think? At first I thought maybe they had just gotten out right before I came in until I saw the extent of the... ahem... excrement EVERYWHERE in the room. That was the point it stopped being quite so funny. I had a hell of a time catching them again, chasing a couple down the hallway, under the bed, etc. When I finally got them all corralled again I called Marc who was fortunately almost home and said "we are having a chicken-mergency and I need you!" Then the chickens were taken outside for the final time-- they will not be coming indoors again. Good thing their coop was mostly done because it's moving day whether they like it or not! Then we began the very unpleasant task of cleaning up the mess, which we did in cranky silence, save for the occasional sniping at each other about the method of cleaning. I am very grateful that chickens are not all that expeditious-- I don't know what I would have done if I had found them on my couch or in my bed!

Despite my aggravation over their antics yesterday, my subconscious told me via some weird dreams and waking up before my alarm even though I was still tired that I was worried about my chickens on their first night outside. This morning I went out to check on them and found them pecking away on the top floor of their coop-- I could tell they hadn't figured out where their food (on the bottom floor) and water was yet so I had to shoo them down to the bottom floor, where due to a design flaw I also ended up letting Olive escape and had to catch her again. At least it is never boring in chicken land!