A Few Lessons about Chickens

1. Do not move their coop too far, even if it would work much better for your grazing plan. If you move it too far, and they cannot see it and you think they'll go there when they get ready to roost, you're wrong.

2. When your chickens cannot find their coop, they just might "roost" on the ground in the last place they remember it being. They might indeed be quite attached to the place their coop was the last time they slept in it.

3. An eight-pound cat can kill an almost grown rooster that comes close to outweighing the cat. That is, if the rooster has decided to roost on the ground because he couldn't find his coop.

4. It is REALLY unpleasant to look for chickens in the dark when it's raining.

5. Even if you have never had a predator problem, a chicken sleeping on the ground outside the electric fence MIGHT get eaten by a fox.

6. If you look at your ten-week-old meat birds who only waddle when they want to move anywhere and think you'll easily herd all 60 of them to a new spot across the road, you're in for trouble.

7. Even really fat meat birds can move fast when they are frightened of the strange surface of the road.

8. Yelling at your children because the meat birds are all over the place on the wrong side of the road will not actually get the chickens where you want them.

9. If you chase a meat bird until it's flapping its wings in fright, you'll be able to catch it sooner because it will get tired.

10. A fishing net is an excellent tool for catching chickens.

11. Once enough chickens are in the fence, the other chickens will want to join them, so you can just get some in the fence at a time. The others will follow.

12. It could actually take five people one-and-a-half hours to move 60 chickens 20 feet. You do the math.