If you had told me a couple of years ago that I'd be getting into a fight with a chicken I'd have said......well, I'd have said "Sure, probably.....yeah, I can see myself doing that!" I mean, that's just kind of how my life goes. So it happened. After a year and a couple of months of owning chickens, I did actually have a fight with one of them.
Bob and I were in a hurry to leave last Saturday afternoon and the chickens had been out all day so I wanted them in before we left. And what I want, I usually get. Ask Bob. But don't ask the chickens because they're under the assumption that they are in control, that they rule the roost, so to speak.
I don't usually have to round the girls up in the evening. They just go into their coop/home to roost when it gets dark and we just have to close the gate. So they had no clue what was happening this day and weren't having any of it. I tried chasing, I tried their snack, scratch, and I tried throwing bananas into the coop. They'd just run in, grab the banana, and scoot back out, and they didn't all do it at the same time. Grrrr!
Bob finally got hold of the quickest and wiliest of the three so my task now was to corral the other, greedier and slower ones. The banana piece was sitting on the threshold, I was bent down to keep them from scooting back out, and they were headed in. Now, just keep in mind that we had been harassing these hens for about twenty minutes so they were very skeptical, to say the least. So with Bob still holding the Link in the background I made my move to push the other two on in the coop. But I just wasn't quick enough and the Rock had had enough. She lunged and spurred me with her talon lickety split. I quickly backed off and felt a trickle of something wet run down my cheek. Blood! Good grief! That hen had made a two inch long scratch from across the bridge of my nose down to my left cheek. And I was waving the proverbial white flag of defeat. They stayed out.
And for the next few days I looked a little like Frankenstein. I thought about posting a picture but not for very long. Yes, I can be as vain as the next person. The scratch is healing up now and I'll have to admit that it made for a pretty good conversation piece. Silver linings, right?
