Mom's Thoughts on Paradise

I’m sorry to report that Annabelle the chicken has been missing for over a week now and is presumed dead. Annabelle was one of nearly 40 chickens from Jenn’s 4-H days. The chickens lived in a fully enclosed pen with a chicken house. One summer, Jenn noticed that a few chickens seemed to be missing, and a hole was discovered under the fencing. David filled in the hole. The next night, the hole was re-dug and more chickens were missing. David covered the hole with cement blocks. So, the predator dug a hole in a different spot. More cement blocks were added until the entire perimeter of the fence was protected. Then the predator found a weak spot in the fence. For each method of entry that we prevented, the clever predator found a new way in, until we had just a few chickens remaining.

At this point, we gave up, opened the door and figured the few remaining chickens would be gone in a few days. One chicken was clearly much smarter than the others. She figured out that the pets lived by the house, so she moved out of the chicken house and took to roosting in a tree by the house and hanging out in the porch and in the yard.

We eventually named her Annabelle. Annabelle was a very successful free range chicken, eating bugs from the yard as well as eating the cat’s food, which she particularly loved. But, after three years of life as a free range chicken, Annabelle is gone and her final fate is unknown.