Escapees..

As many of you will know I have fought relentlessly to keep the chickens contained where they should be in their POW camp to ensure that we don't have any stray eggs/chicks. This appeared to be working quite well for a while, and every chicken was present and correct. However  there are two rogue chickens and a rooster, which are refusing to play fair!

I spend most of the day letting them back into the orchard, for them to appear behind me 30 seconds later! I refuse to be outsmarted by a chicken, however, they are doing a good job of it at present. It started with just a rooster, which wasn't a big issue as they don't lay eggs, so I allowed him to wander. Big mistake this was taken as an open invitation to who ever could escape to join him on the other side!

So, one day there was one rooster, then the next there was a rooster and a chicken, and now we have a rooster and two chickens. I am worried that in a week there will be a tag team,and half the orchard will be wandering. Thankfully the batteries were not born with brains, incredible laying potential..just no common sense or brains.

After one attempt at putting them back, I watched to see how they had escaped, convinced they had pecked their way through the fence, or built a little wooden ladder out of twigs to escape. Alas, it was neither, as they appeared on top of a roof and gently glided down to freedom! Therefore, they must have been climbing the tree to escape. Now there was two trees that it could have been, and I had a 50% chance of cutting down the correct one.

Yes, you guessed it I choose wrong, and managed to lop a tree that had nothing to do with the escape plan. Damn! ok, well now I know that it is the other tree which is aiding them in their escape, today's mission is to lop the remaining tree and hope that was the way they were escaping,or at this rate i won't have any trees left!