Flo's gone broody

This girl got a haircut. You can't tell? Hmmm, well look closely and you'll see her feathers on the sides are a little shorter now.

KIM, why on earth would you give a chicken a haircut? And why are we calling it a haircut anyway? How about a feather trim?

Well, call it what you want, this silly bird had it comin'. BECAUSE FLO HAS GONE BROODY!

It seems that Flo left the yard unattended two days ago. She FLEW over our fence and began laying her eggs in a pile of leaves under our kitchen window. IN OUR FRONT YARD!

Yesterday The Man and G were out on the driveway playing basketball. Suddenly The Man comes running inside. KIM! KIM! There's a chicken in the front yard!!

We wrestle her out from behind the bushes and plop her back in the backyard. Meanwhile, I've looked down and seen a green egg nestled in the leaves. And it's cold! Uh-oh. This one has been here for a day! How did she get out here long enough to lay an egg yesterday and return undetected??

I headed back inside the house. And it only took a few minutes for her to escape... again! Wrestle the chicken, place her in the yard. Different verse, same as the first.

The boys finished up playing and headed inside. And I went back out one more time to ensure that she's NOT in the front yard. But lo and behold, she was square in place on top of the perceived day old egg and getting ready to lay a new one. Sisters. However, this mama has other ideas, like the fact that THERE IS NO ROOSTER TO MAKE THOSE EGGS INTO CHICKIES, YOU DUMB BIRD!

So I let her do her business and placed her back in the backyard.

This morning I got up and read my favorite Go-To book: A Chicken in Every Yard. And I found out that if I want to stop the yard hopping, I must clip her wings. So clip, I did. It's just like a haircut, so don't worry: there were no animals injured in the writing of this blog. And now she can't get run over crossing the road, either, since she'll be laying her eggs where they belong now. I just hope she didn't give the other girls any great ideas with her escapade.