I Found Two Chickens, Part Two!

If you click HERE or just scroll down to the previous post, you will know what all this is about.

Last I left you, I had two beautiful hens that had spent the night and were starting a low burrrrrr noise (which I caught on both films below) when I was brushing my teeth. After I gave them a drink of water, I gently lifted them out of the box one by one and put them back in the carrier in which I'd brought them upstairs. One didn't want to go -- and tried to stick it's foot against the door, which I can only assume meant that I was a fabulous hostess.

I am kidding, you know.

Other than that millisecond of hesitation, they went into without incident. Here they are:

I covered the carrier with my leopard blanket and went down in the service elevator, again praying I wouldn't be discovered. But if I had been -- can you picture that encounter? Though this being Texas.... maybe it wouldn't surprise anyone. It was about 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning, so that helped. The elevator was deserted. And seeing that we're moving out in about 10 days, I had little to lose.

Once I secured the cage in the passenger seat, I drove carefully for 15 minutes or so to The Wildlife Center. On the way, I took the blanket off and put the window down so they could enjoy the fresh air and morning sun (for anyone who doesn't know, it's roosters that cock-a-doodle-do at the first hint of morning).

When I got there, I was instructed to put them in one of the outdoor pens, which was my hope. Then I went to get them a nice big pan of water and another filled with chicken scratch. What's great about volunteering at this place is that it allowed me to take care of them all the way through. It wasn't a day I was coming in, but instead of just dropping them off I could get them settled before I left.

But there was a little surprise.... there just so happened to be a handsome white rooster next to them, and it was a riot when I put the girls in the adjacent pen. He immediately zeroed in on them, and for the first few minutes, they were both standing side by side, giving him an audience. He proceeded to bu-kaw and strut, and scrape the gravel back with his feet like James Brown. He paced back and forth working his neck as I melted into a puddle. I mean really, I'm a city girl. No matter how long I've been around wildlife now, it's all new to me. I thought this shit only happened in cartoons/comedy skits or was exaggerated, but apparently, it's art mirroring life.



Mistah Fiiine Feathas... Now I see where Jagger gets it.




By the way, I have since caught myself (always when alone mind you) making that low burrrrr burrrr sound out loud, including variations, to amuse myself. I may have done it unconsciously though, god knows how many times. Perhaps I did it in my car, and someone may have seen me and wondered if I was singing to the radio or talking to someone on one of those blue tooth earplug things that I abhor (but never say never). Thank goodness for a place that forces you to have the AC on in the car so the windows were up. That's my guarantee that no one could have actually heard that I was, in fact... clucking.

Found: Two Chickens!

OK, so I was driving home from a bar, having had two shots of tequila and a beer and I found two chickens.

Sounds like the start of a joke, but it's true, and it gets better. At least I think it's funny. I was at the bar for farewell party for someone at the zoo, where I volunteer. I was heading back home before dinner and as I drove past the mansion-filled street en route, I saw two beautiful black and white hens pecking away at the grass.

I have never forgiven myself for not taking The Chicken at the Park and ensuring her safety (I finally went out with a carrier, cracked corn and a net and never found her... and I've never seen her again). As you can see by clicking HERE and HERE, after the construction on the site of her old home, where the little train shack had been in The Park, she took to living under a little bridge in the parking lot. While this provided plenty of coverage, insects to peck at in the plants and a water source, I saw her waaay too often in the middle of the road. YES, OR TRYING TO CROSS THE ROAD.

Either something really good happened to her, or something really bad. I was not going to risk it with these two. So I gave them some corn to eat while I rang a few bells in the neighborhood to ask after them. No one had ever seen them before or knew who they belonged to. That was all I needed to hear.




I had a carrier in the trunk and by now, a tattooed girl who was riding past parked her bike and helped me catch them. It was very easy, so I realized they were used to human beings. When we got home, we tossed a blanket over the carrier and snuck them up the elevator in our high rise. They don't allow wild animals so I was hoping no one would let a BUK-KAW rip at that very moment. The girls were good. Very very good.

I had no idea what to do to make them comfortable for the night but after a little thought it ended up that I put them in a big new deep Dell box with a floor of thick newspaper. I added a towel and a tee shirt to half. That whole thing went in my egg shaped bath tub in the guest bathroom where they would not be disturbed by sound or light for the night.

Before I tucked them in, I put cracked corn in the corner and they started pecking, so they couldn't be too upset. Then I held a tupperware container of water about beak level and they very delicately drank quite a bit. I was able to rest easy knowing they had their fill; if I'd left it in there for the night they'd have spilled it.






I put a light blanket over the top of the crate, as there were air holes on the sides. All was a quiet. Fast Foward to 7 AM the next day:


Good Morning Chickens! Time to sneak out and take you to The Wildlife Center.



Apparently they slept standing up? I gave them water and in the 20 minutes it took for me to get ready to go, one of them was starting a hysterical low buuuuuur noise. Cracked me up.

Tune in tomorrow for part two -- a happy ending.

Hen Peck

I have gone to the park several times this week and have not seen the chicken. Since it's new habit seems to be standing in the road, I keep feeling certain it will get hit... or it will disappear and I will never know what happened to it... did it get squashed on a week, like this coming one, where I will be out of town, and there will be no telltale signs left as dust returns to dust? Has someone scooped him up for dinner once night (hey, in these parts, it could happen). Did the chicken indeed cross the road successfully and take up residence in a more protected area by the golf course? I would search and search and never know.

So the other day, I had just decided to dump all the cracked corn I bring for him to feed a set of 5 mallard siblings who eagerly gobbled it up and grow stronger for it... and I finally see the chicken in the same old place, pecking at the grass. And my bag is empty, grrr. Is she subsisting on insects alone? Am I the only one feeding her anymore?

I go home, I think about her, I am back the next day at sunset, when all is quiet and I see her. This time I have plenty of corn. I shot this first part from afar so you can see what an oddity it is to have a lone black hen in the middle of a parking lot beside a major street.




Right after I stopped shooting, the chicken spots me and comes RUNNING. I wish I'd caught it on tape but feeding her was more important to me and I didn't want to scare her away. Those toothpicks for legs coming at me so fast... hysterical.



I poured a pile that was way too big, on the side of the curb so she would be far away from the busy street... Doh! I should have put it UP on the SIDEWALK! I sat there in the quiet, with the sun going down, just the hen and me, waiting for the hen to eat it all, feeling satisfied for at least another day.


So opinions please..... I'm thinking of bringing a net and a carrier and catching the chicken in hopes that one of the rehabbers in the Wildlife Center will give it a home. I can't help but think it's stressful with no real cover having to hunt and pick for food... around traffic, hiding from the crowds at the zoo (it's a madhouse most days), having no other company of it's own kind.

Or is the hen happy being wild and free? Someone clearly had in their yard -- maybe got it as a chick for Easter and found it wasn't fun once it was bigger -- and dropped off at the park. Remember, it used to have shelter in an overgrown covered shack that once housed the children's train that runs around the park. That was all bulldozed and now is completed, and the chicken has no where to go... Can it be happy in the parking lot nearby, right next to the busy street and zoo? It's hard to know what's the right thing to do.

It's a Long Story.....

Been meaning to mention for OVER A YEAR that in addition to all the animals I listed on the Snow White post, there is a hen in the Park too. That's right, a lone hen. Someone must have dropped her off there and she'd been managing to live there for gawd-knows how long.

I was astonished when I first discovered her, thanks to a homeless man who pointed her out to me, happy to be talking to someone, someone who clearly loves animals as much as he does. The guy, looked like he could not feed himself, but I've seen him often wandering the perimeter of The Park with a bag of peanuts in the shell (the most economical thing to feed the squirrels). He pointed toward the vine covered, ramshackle shed where the children's train was kept at night. There in the side was a hole, and hovering at it's entrance was a black hen!

She tentatively peeked from the safety of her shelter when I tossed some bread her way. But she would not come out to eat until I stepped way back. When I did, she pecked what I had brought. So I started to go by to feed the chicken on my rounds.

Last Fall, The Park started a remodeling project of the very area where the hen lived. Construction trailers, tractors, shovels, cement, metal poles, spools of heavy wire, bright blue Port-a-pottys and lots and lots of men in work boots and hard hats invaded the grounds and dug everything up. I approached the foreman and asked if he was aware of the chicken, which he said was. I asked if I could bring some chicken scratch by he said they'd be happy to give it to her, but that they also fed her (I assumed, pizza scraps). I liked the thought of all these big bruisers caring for the girl. I continued to check every time I visited the park or the zoo, and most times I'd see the chicken in the area near the trailers. As the site morphed, I noticed at times she was penned, so they were making an effort to protect her.

Flash foward to last weekend, opening day of the new park area. I was driving on the heavily trafficked road between the Zoo and the golf course and I spotted a large black bird at the edge of the curb. I made a stop in the lane so I could get out (no one was immediately behind) and throw her some bread. OK, I have to say it. The chicken was about to CROSS THE ROAD, and I was tossing the bread in the other direction, to lure her away from the edge. Why WAS this chicken trying to cross the road? To get to the golf course? Not on a busy Easter week Saturday on the main drag near the Zoo! After all she'd been through, as described above, she could not end her life as road kill.

Had I been able, I'd have taken time to scoot her back further, to the safety of some kind of bushes at least... and I had to summon the strength to let it go as I drove away. But you bet your arse I was back there the next day, and with food.

She must have gotten used to people and loud noise and chaos, because when I saw her, she actually came running up to me. I had cracked corn in my pocket. Plenty of it! I was SO HAPPY to see she was still alive... We'd also just had two days straight of monsoon-like rain and thunderstorms. Half the area was flooded. This one's a survivor for sure.



I felt bad, that she must be very hungry. I wish I had a yard, because I'd love to catch her and give her a good home. I know she's survived all this time, now without a shelter. Maybe she likes it, and is an independent single....um,... chick... but maybe she's scared and lonely. I can't claim to know. Do chickens think? (that's another post)

Here she is running up to me. This time I hope it's that she's been totally socialized, not that she's starving under the fluff of all those feathers.

Oh, and did you hear that crazy mechanical kind of wind up to the long tailed grackle behind her? I am so glad to finally get that on film. I'll write about it in the next post.... back to the chicken. OUTRAGEOUS is it not?!?!?!

I went back today on my bike with more grain, looking for her, but didn't see her. I'll try again in a few days. She's obviously getting along just fine, but of course, I worry.

Baby chicks

I mentioned a ways back that there were a large group of chickens sitting in the large warehouse next to the rehab center, cock a doodle do-ing all day long. They really make quite a racket.

Well, we took in about 6 tanks worth of baby chicks, 8-10 a tank, and kept them warm, clean and fed. They grow so fast! I came in one Thurdsay to little yellow puff bals and the next thursday to these guys below, double in size from before, and already growing out heavier, mutli- colored feathers. To look down on the tanks from above you can appreciate how beautiful they looked much more. I wish I had taken a photo from that angle, but I was too busy scooping them out into a new tank so I could clean the one they were in.

Instead, I took this quick little snippet of them eagerly drinking some fresh water I'd put in while they were waiting for me to finish up and get to feeding them their breakfast. They are as cute, swallowing with their little beaks in motion, as the baby ducks where that I filmed HERE.

All those roosters crowing made me think twice about having chickens when I buy a home/have some land. I thought it would be a great way to have live animals, while having a source of fresh food (just the eggs!!!). I was thinking that would be even easier than trying to grow things in a garden. But do I really want to be woken up at 4 AM by a rooster crowing? And apparently they don't just do it in the morning if these guys we have are any indication. One of them goes off literally every minute.