I thought we were doing fine with Charlie. She spent the night and most of the day in the coop with the other girls and then we took her back into the house for a few hours to make sure she got enough food and water.
It was a happy compromise. She got to be out with the flock and we got to keep having a chicken in our house (at least for a small part of the day.) The other bonus was that if a chicken doesn’t spend the entire day in your house then a chicken doesn’t spend the entire day pooping in your house.
Everything was dandy.
Until I work up this morning.
The high school kids had made it out of the house (they leave at 6:45 and on a cold day like today, nope, not gonna see me.) At 7:15 I got out of bed in order to wake Emma up (she’s on the next school shift) to get ready for school.
As I was ready to come down the stairs I heard a very familiar sound. It kind of sounded like a chicken trying to growl in a chorus. Sure enough, at the bottom of the stairs, both Charlie and Pippin were doing a little dance of excitement at seeing me come downstairs.
Wait a minute. Charlie had been in the henhouse last night. I know because I had put her there.
When later I saw Trevor , the leader of the high school crew, I asked him why Charlie was in the house this morning.
“When I went to let the chickens out this morning, she came up to me and I was running late so I just picked her up and brought her into the house.”
Of course.
There are two things I want to say about this.
- Apparently I’m not the only one having a bit of difficulty trying to push Charlie out of the nest.
And
2, If Trevor acts this way with a house-Chicken, heaven help him if he ever has a little girl someday.
