The chickens are getting smarter. When they are free-ranging in the backyard during the day, we block the top of the stairs to the kitchen with a baby gate so they don’t sit on the porch all day and poop it up. Well, the chickens have figured out a way around that. They just fly over the gate. Why it took them 5 years to figure this out, I don’t know.
I came home yesterday and was puttering in the kitchen. I heard the quiet “bawk, bawk” that the chickens do when they’re just hanging out. I thought to myself, “dangit, didn’t I put up the baby gate?” I looked out to see one chicken on the porch and one chicken on the stairs. So, I opened the gate, shooed the chicken onto the stairs and closed the gate. After a few minutes I heard the tell-tale “bawk, bawk” by the door. Sure enough, both of them had flown over the gate and were happily sitting on the porch.
I figured I’d let them stay. I didn’t have time to mess them at that point. We had dinner, etc. and I suddenly remembered that the chickens were still on the porch. I went out and spent the next 15 minutes chasing them around the yard, getting them to their coop. You see, once it’s dark, they can’t see anything and so stay where they are. Usually, they head over to their coop around sunset and we just shut them in for the night. But, since they were on the nice, warm, cosy porch, they didn’t go to their coop. So, I probably amused all the neighbors by chasing them around the yard, flashlight in hand, trying to get them in their coop.
By the way, yes, chickens do fly. They just don’t fly a lot. When my chickens think someone has food for them, they fly the length of the yard to get to it more quickly.
Oh…how funny! My grandfather never let them free range his yard, so there was no chasing them down. His chickens were to lazy to fly very far!