escaping chickens and pigs

On Sunday evening, after a long day of chores, Bernie called around from the barn to say - are the chickens supposed to be out of the coop? These are dreaded words. Our neighbors dogs eat stray chickens, so chickens stay in their chicken runs and coops all the time.

I got the girls and we went running for the back yard. I asked Grace to post herself at the edge of the barn to stop chickens from running towards the neighbors gate. I sent Rose for the trout net. These Red Star chickens should be called Road Runners because they were fast. At one point, I threw the net through the paddock fence at an escaping bird and it landed right on top of her. The kids started calling me Ninja Mommy.

It only took 20 minutes to catch each of them with the fish net. As we caught each one in it, we'd gently put her in the coop. I examined the door to the coop and it appeared that the cows must have unlatched it by rubbing themselves on the front of it. We'll have to fix that today.

The collective pigs, which are being raised by the Muench's again this year, got out on Sunday night. We all went over there when Barbara called us from their way back to town from traveling. Their friend who was coming by to feed them realized they were gone but the Muenches were still a couple hours away, so they called out the collective.

The shoats were found nearby in the woods and herded back through the fence, which our friend Rob opened up. The shoats had found a place in the fence and wiggled through, so we put up more fencing and zip-tied it to the outside. Hog panels are always great to use because they have graduated spacing from bottom to top. The little piglets can't get through the bottom spaces, since they are much smaller than the top ones. But part of the fence had been built from almost identical-looking panels, same metal, same thickness - which didn't have the graduated sizing. The piglets were able to escape through the large boxes at the bottom.

Bill and Barbara had done a great job putting in the fencing, which included bottom boards to keep them from digging under, so the added round of fencing on the outside that was quickly added will do the trick. Pigs will get out of whatever you put them into though, make no doubt about it. We're very grateful the Muenches are willing to raise them again this year.

Bill had turned out earlier in the week when we lost the calf - so we're finding ways to make the best use of our collective food growers!