Down the Rabbit Hole
East of the Ozarks
Rain and Wind 64 Degrees
8:05 a.m.
Last week, kind friends of ours gave us their four free range chickens to add to our growing flock.
We’re now up to 9 birds. It would be 10 except we sent the rooster across the “Rainbow Bridge,” which in his case, happened to take him right to the inside of our freezer.
While the chicken “transfer” was supposed to be a short and sweet type of an event, our adventure extended over two days.
On day one, rather than catch the chickens, I, along with three of my sons, presented a two hour seminar on how NOT to catch chickens.
There were only 3 people in the audience, but I have a feeling they enjoyed the show.
An appropriate title for the production would have been, “How to Get Outsmarted By a Chicken in 3 Easy Steps.”
As it turns out, chickens operate just like customers and clients. They are smart. They are looking out for their own best interests.
And when you chase them, they run away.
You would think you could corner these little suckers, but in an area where no constraints exist, where they are free to go in any one of the 360 degrees available to them, “cornering” them turned out to be a wee bit challenging.
After several triumphant “close” calls and the very best of intentions, we succeeded in alarming them all to such a degree that they scattered in four different directions and buried themselves in the middle of piles of thorny bushes and trees.
Chickens 1, Humans 0.
Day two was a different story. We showed up early in the morning and decided to use our heads this time. Instead of trying to chase anyone, we simply didn’t open the coop from the night before.
We took a dog crate INSIDE the coop and my sons gently lured each chicken inside using some food.
The chickens are now enjoying their new home, getting to know the neighbors and hopefully realizing they are in the presence of a ton of little ones who will offer them unlimited care and attention.
The irony of chasing the chickens is not lost on me considering I spend my time helping business owners build systems that attract clients and customers.
The Great Chicken Caper of 2022 provides yet another proof point that attraction is the smart approach to take.
As we now know, “chasing” is not even for the birds.