Chicken Wars

Now I thought I always got on pretty well with chickens, always had some in the garden etc. In this house this has been taken to a whole new level. I'm not sure how well I've explained the setup here. There is a courtyard, two sides are buildings, two sides are fences, you go through a gate in one of these fences to another fenced in outdoor area which has a chicken coop and the dunny. The dunny is a hole in the ground with no door,but three walls, the chickens wander freely around and watch you curiously while you are having a squat (Do chickens eat people shit?) Anyway I was dealing with being perved on by the chickens quite okay and was getting good at going quickly through the gate to the courtyard because the chickens always try to make a break for it.

This morning it all went sadly awry because as I escaped back into the courtyard, one fat red hen ran through the gate before I could stop it. The normal thing to do would be to open the gate and shoo the chook back through, but in this case that would release the half a dozen other chooks and the rooster on the other side. Due to the layout of garden beds and hedges in the courtyard, the chook had a perfect figure 8 to run around in making her quite difficult to corner. I tried sneaking up, I tried the snatch and grab but every time she squawked and flapped or ran under the hedge. She was having a great time pecking at everything in the vegie patch and around the courtyard.

Realising I was not going to be able to defeat her with either my strength or agility (and I might add, there was no one else home to call for help) I decided to outwit her. A plan formed in my head and I found a big cardboard box near the wood pile which I stood on one side with just one flap open near the gate. Ran up to my room and grabbed the last of a breadroll I had put and laid a trail of bread crumbs leading into the box. I'm glad no one was home, they would have killed themselves laughing. The chook took the bait and started pecking up the crumbs. The first time she started to enter the box, I tried to close the box too quickly and she got away. I patiently laid more crumbs and after following her around the garden another 8 or 10 times to head her in the direction of the gate, she finally pecked her way into the box and wham, I slammed the box shut behind her, picked it up and triumphantly carried it into the chook yard. Red hen joined her mates and I wiped her droppings off the courtyard floor. The whole thing took over half an hour. But my host family will never know!!! Ha ha ha. evil laugh.

This afternoon I taught another conversation class. The kids were pretty good, laughed a lot, bit noisier this group. That was fine. Nothing else has happened so that will be all for now,
see yas