Wednesday, August 22, 2007

perils of free-ranging the chooks

I know I haven't posted in awhile (ok, only once), but ZsuZsu gave me quite a scare last night, so I thought I'd share.

I had just picked a zucchini and was readying it for the grill when ZsuZsu, ever curious, hopped up on the shelf at the front of the grill to see what I was doing. And to look for scraps, no doubt. At that point the grill had been on for at least 10 minutes and was at about 500 degrees.

So I freaked and tried to shoo her off.

She returned the freak-out and fluttered onto the handle of the grill cover.

I don't know if it was shock at the heat, or if she was just being stubborn, but she refused to get down. I actually had to push her pretty hard to get her to move--all the while yelling, "Oh my god! Get off of there! Get off!"

I can only imagine what the neighbors were thinking.

ZsuZsu seemed fine once she finally hopped down--just before Sophia joined her on the handle--but she wouldn't let me look at her feet. Go figure. I can only hope that my repeated assurances that she's just not that type of chicken, combined with some memory of the heat, will convince her to stay away from the grill next time.

2 comments:

Linda said...

Whew! That was a close call! I've just caught up after a few days away from the blog, and seems you have a lot going on with the chickens. I've been lucky with my pullets. While it seem that someone was nesting in the Eglu where they shouldn't be (due to the droppings in the nest), putting a flower pot in there seemed to do the trick. I haven't been able to check inside since late yesterday, but it had worked over the prevous day or two that it was in place. I just let my girls out to free range yesterday for the first time. They absolutely loved the freedom and tasted every green thing they could. I wish I could leave them out all day, but there are too many hazards in an urban environment.

Melanie K said...

Thanks, Linda! I'll definitely have to try the flower pot tomorrow. They've moved the wire again (see new post). I'm glad your girls liked their taste of freedom--and the bugs and weeds, of course :)
But now you should be prepared for them to demand to be let out every time they see you!

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