Canned Chicken

 

    My nightly routine is feeding the chickens first to give them time to eat and head to the coop to roost.  Then get hay and water for the goats and Elliott they get a treat when it's time to lock the doors and go to bed. Now all of that sound so simple NOT! It turns into animal version of the keystone cops. Chaos is the theme of the night. After at least 30 min. of chasing goats and a horse I go into the house for a few minutes while the last chicken stragglers make their way to the coop. Chickens put themselves to bed at dark, I am not always able to speed this up as chickens are not going to be hurried if they have something better they want to do. Then I go back to count chickens, shut doors and straighten barn yard up then put goat mobile away and so on.

    This night like all the rest is moving along as usual goats are extra bad and Elliott got loose so I had to chase him. It is now dark and I don't have to wait on the chickens so I start counting. I count by building not total. I do that after when I add all my counts up.  Now there are 6 adults plus 3 Ameracanas, 3 Copper Marans, 4 Laced Red Wyandottes, 4 Seabrights and 2 Polish. lock that door all counted. The barn has 12 adults in the rafters, all counted and locked in. Now the big coop. 19 adults. No that's wrong, I count over and over, it still comes out 19. So back to the barn where they roost in the rafters. This time I go in the house to get a flash light as it is really dark now. Again I count 12, again and again. I now am sure I'm missing a chicken. I then go on the hunt for a chicken or its body.  I walk the road as they get hit by cars now and then. Nothing. I then hit the barn thinking someone might be in there. I did not find any. I decided I would not get too worried till tomorrows count to make sure the chicken isn't hiding some where. 

    While straightening up the garage I see where the goats have tipped over the cracked corn bin and helped themselves to it. I went over and tipped the can up and seen the corn bag all crumpled up in the bottom of the barrel. I grabbed it to see how much they ate.  The bag was kind of heavy so I tossed it on the floor so I could clean the bottom of the barrel. It hit the floor with a thud. Not the sound I expected at all. I open the bag and found the missing chicken. She looked like she was in food coma. As it turned out all the corn was eaten by who I don't know or who got the most, goats or chickens. All I know is that last hen was pretty fat.