Turkey Tracks: Lost Chickens

Turkey Tracks:  April 3, 2010

Lost Chickens

John lost the chickens last night.

I went outside at dusk to batten down the hatches on their coop so no predator could get to them in the night and found John circling the garage.

“The chickens are missing,” he said.

I chuckled because I had done precisely the same thing two nights before.

“Look inside,” I said.  They’ve put themselves to bed.”

And, there they were, up in the attic of the coop and curled into the nesting boxes.  You have to look really hard to see the black hens on the roost in the dark.  The wheatens are easier to spot.  Or so you’d think.  I somehow managed to leave one outside the coop, but inside the cage one night last week.  She must have been under the coop.  I found her the next morning roosting on the inside ramp to the coop.  The wheatens don’t take on the bulky French babes, and one of the wheatens is always odd woman out.

I have to count feet on the French babes to take a roll call.  Nappy is easy to spot.  On cold nights, he and Sally sleep together.  As I peer at them through the lid over the nesting boxes, he purrs to me.

“Good night,” Nappy, I say, and rub his neck for a minute.

Then, together, John and I lock them in.