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Health & Fitness

Chicken Sit

"Do you sit for chickens?" was the question posed by a dog trainer friend of mine via  email. "Why not? What's involved?" I replied after a little contemplation. I went to visit the "pets" before I would make up my mind. I was brought out to the chicken's wire enclosed pen in the backyard, scooted under the deactivated electric fence and a chicken was presented to me whereupon I was told to go ahead and pet her. Wow. "Such soft fur" I praised. "They're feathers, not fur" my friend corrected! Oh yeah. Duh! Seemed an uncomplicated assignment so I accepted.

Once acclimated in the house on the first day of my assignment during Spring Break, I went out to visit the chickens, checked out the bright red tractor in the garage, got to know the cat and settled in for a simple week. Instructions were to feed the cat and then let the chickens out of the coop and into the pen in the morning and give them one cup of chicken "snack" which was comprised of sunflower seeds, raisins and some other grains.  Make sure they had food in the treadle and water. Then, at some time in the day, let the chickens out of the pen to free range around the yard, keeping an eye on them to make sure no hawks flew overhead and snatched one. After an hour or two, call "Here chickie, chickie, chickie" and shake the snack container at which they point they'd all come running and put them back in the pen. At dusk, they would "put themselves to bed" in the coop, except for Florence HENderson who was prone to sitting on the roof and would be waiting for me to pick her up and put her in the coop. Finally, I was to collect the eggs in the late afternoon, which I was told I could eat. I was to feed the cat 3 times during the day and clear the cat litter twice a day. 

All was going well from Friday afternoon to Sunday night. Monday morning, I sat on the denim couch typing in my iPad journal with cat resting on my legs, looking up occasionally, watching the chickens hunt for bugs around the little abandoned plastic playhouse, going in and out of the open red door and under the pink slide, hopping through the holes meant for children to climb. Wait, a movement, OMG - an actual, live, red fox was approaching the chickens!!! I sprang off the couch banged on the window, raced out the back door in my pajamas and slippers, screaming at the hunter who now had Florence in his mouth! "Get Out" I hollered waving my arms and running towards the animal, scaring him enough that he dropped the chicken and ran to the other side of the pen and jumped over the fence, disappearing into the woods. Adrenaline pumping, I followed the screeching chickens, feathers were everywhere! Tears in my eyes as I ran down to the entrance of the pen, deactivated the electric fence and walked in among the chickens. 

One, two, three... etc. all five accounted for. Sigh of relief. Then I tried to examine Florence. Her black and white feathers slightly ruffled scurrying around, no doubt adrenaline pumping in her too, but she looked uninjured. Another sigh of relief. But my heart wouldn't stop pounding, my pulse racing. I started shaking. Near tears, I called my friend and told her what happened. I told her the fox had jumped out, not gone under the fence, so there must be an opening. 

I toured the whole enclosure and discovered multiple spots where the top micro mesh fencing was pulled away from the bottom large mesh electrified fence. I found cable ties and blue electric tape in the tool box in the house and spent an hour fixing the gaps. I looked for holes dug on the ground, and secured anything suspicious with heavy rocks and tree branches to block places where mesh could potentially be moved. A neighbor came to help and said there was a disconnected coil in the electric fence, so despite the fact that the box was turned on and the light was green and there was a clicking sound, the fence was not electrified. He fixed the problem and showed me how to make sure it didn't come undone again. I could test it and get a shock similar to walking on a staticky carpet. Sounds fun! I was reminded to check myself for ticks! Oh the pleasures of the woods... 

Who would have thought that a "fox in the henhouse" would actually be true!? For the next week I watched the chickens "like a hawk". Then one morning, I actually saw a hawk circling and went out to flap my arms around to make sure he knew someone was watching over those tasty chickens he was considering for lunch!! "Mama Hen" I'd become. All the cliche's we use in our citified day to day life now had meaning! I'd embraced the Farmer Fern in me. 

For the next five days I spent every morning on the couch, watching out the window until the sun was higher in the sky and early morning predators go back into hiding. Every morning I was a nervous wreck waiting for another predator to arrive. The squirrels and birds darting around made me jump. And, later in the day, when I only counted 4 chickens, I'd panic until I remembered that the chickens go in the coop to lay eggs. 

Once the fence was properly electrified I saw no more predators. I enjoyed watching the chickens. Chickens travel in groups. I pulled out a lawn chair and watched them while they free-ranged in the piles of leaves, pecked away at the soil in the flower boxes, took dirt baths under the newly blooming trees by the front door, pecked at mysterious rewards on the tar driveway, completing the circuit like shoppers in a mall. One day they were all lined up next to each other and got into perfect rhythm. Scratch the earth, beak dipped to the ground, dig, rise. Repeat. Watching them all scratch at the same time, lined up, I wanted to yell "On your mark, get ready, get set, GO..." but I knew these guys would just ignore me. 

Normally, when I stand by the pen and call for the chicks and shake their snack they all come running at breakneck speed and practically skid into the pen!! Whooo Hooo - fun to watch. Day at the races. One day the chickens didn't all come when I called. Three came, two didn't - they were too happy taking dirt baths in the front yard flower bed. I had 3 chickens back in the pen and gave them their reward - raisins. Then I spent 20 minutes shooing the other guys, playing ring-around-the-rosey with a bush, to get them back to the pen. When I opened the pen to get the two chickens in, the other 3 chickens rushed out! Then I had to run all over the yard and get more snacks to get them all finally in the pen. Who says this job is easy??? 

I wonder if beings on another planet are videotaping humans and watching me while snacking on popcorn, laughing their butts off at how ridiculous I must look chasing away foxes and hawks and herding chickens! I have renewed admiration for the farmers out there, for teachers that have to watch entire classrooms of students and for the mothers that herd and protect children for 18 plus years! 

Ready for my next pet sitting assignment .... a puppy cockapoo. Who knows what will come after that... A friend said he could see me milking a cow... hmmmmmmm. 

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