We caught the chickens!

After much anxiety we actually caught the hen and her 11 chicks.

We decided to do the round up on Saturday night after we discovered the hen nesting in a slightly convenient location- meaning it was not under the house. She decided to nest in the coop, which sounds great on the surface. Just close the door right and you have them all locked up. I tried that. The hen stays in the coop, all of her chicks squeeze through every little bitty hole there is. This only makes the hen anxious and me worry about all of the chicks wandering the yard.

We then went and found the fishing nets, only to discover one was dry rotted. So we have one net, one rooster, one hen and 11 chicks. The rooster is actually not ours he's just following our hen around. At this time he is roosting in the neighbors fig tree just across our fence.

We formulate a plan of attack, which basically was "catch them", and then get in position. Ted crawls into the coop and throws the net over the hen. She, shockingly, does nothing! Ted picks her up and puts her in another cage. Just by chance Ted is able to net one of the chicks too. He did catch another one and put it in a box. I caught nothing initially. Well the chicks had scattered everywhere in the yard. Ted netted a couple more that had gathered under the cage where the hen is. At this point we decide to let the chicks settle down and hope the hen will call them over to the cage. We wait a few minutes and I pick up the net and caught two after a little battle. Ted catches a few more. Now we have all but four. We hear them peeping (is that a word?). They had gone back over to the coop looking for their mom. So I grab the net and start creeping that way. The chicks spot me and immediately start their panic peep. All of a sudden the rooster flies toward me. I in a split second consult all my past training and do exactly what I thought was the most dignified and appropriate response- I screamed at the top of my lungs. This actually startled the rooster and he turned the other way.

As I attempt to return to my hunt Ted says, "Don't worry if the rooster attacks you I will stand back and watch." To which I responded "What?!" He looks at me like I'm crazy and says, " The rooster has spurs!" He was joking. We both decide, sense the rooster got in on the action, to let the hen call her chicks over to the cage. This eventually works and we did catch all of the chicks. But it was an interesting evening.




"You may be the only Jesus your neighbor will ever see."
-Mother Angelica