“What’s a few tail feathers when my ladies are concerned?”

We had just come home from getting some dirt for our raised bed containers when Jessy decided to let Evee out in the dog yard.

I was in the kitchen putting away a few groceries we had picked up when I heard her scream at the dog and it was not a good scream. It was a Jessy in pure panic scream and I knew what was up… Evee had gotten out of the screen porch and was after the chickens. She is fixated on the chickens and just can’t stand it when they are too close to the house.

I fly out the door and see Jessy chasing after Evee who is chasing after a flock of chickens, with Bucka in the pack, running and flapping for the barn.

But all the sudden, Bucka gets a backbone and stops and turns to face the dog once he sees his ladies have gotten close to the barn. It was a purely unselfish act and he was ready to take on this bounding beast of terror. He got rolled by the pup, and came up fighting and managed to scare the dog pretty good, as she got a bunch of tail feathers in the skirmish as well as a face of rooster claw.

Well, she backed off pretty quick and Jessy was right there, trying so hard not to scream commands in panic, and try and sound like a good alpha owner and Evee went into her down position and stayed as Bucka rushed off towards the barn to get to his women.

Jessy caught Evee quickly, which is not normal, and actually a good sign that she’s FINALLY starting to get the whole off leash command thing, because I KNOW she wanted nothing more than to go back and chase some more chickens! And I was so proud of Jessy, because she’s still not totally cool with being too close to the chickens, but she adores them as we all do and would just be upset if her dog had hurt them.

Well Maggie had come running as well, at this point, she was out in the garden putzing and we started to look for the girls and Bucka. We found all the girls but one, in the barn, on the roost, all puffed up but calming down. We talked with them and gave them a little crack corn and just tried to show them it was okay. But we couldn’t find Mildred anywhere!!! She had been right along side of Bucka in the dash for the barn and we were concerned that she might have gotten separated from them all, and possibly hurt. And we couldn’t find Bucka!

I was concerned when he didn’t come when I called him, he usually does. We fanned out, calling him and looking for signs. FInally we located him in the poultry barn! Over by the garden. He must have gotten in at the back barn that we call the pig barn, since that door was open in the back. He was walking around on the concrete shelves, all puffed up and still a little aggitated. But he looked fine from his encounter, just a little rattled. Maggie and I slowly herded him out of the long building and back to his ladies and they huddled around their protector like a war hero back from the battle! Cooing and preening him and just fussing over him like girls can do. He was very happy to be back with them.

Maggie searched for an hour and couldn’t find Mildred. Finally she gave up and came back to the house, upset, and I did my best Mom talk that she was probably just scared and hiding somewhere and to just give her a little time. She’s one of our timid hens, our beautiful little white and brown Ameracuna. Sure enough, after another hour had passed, Mildred was back with the flock. We’re not sure where she was, but I think she might have flown up into the low tree branches near the whole attack and hid out there for awhile till she thought the coast was clear.

Evee was on everyone’s list for awhile, and spent a bit of time in her crate for time out.

I realize that letting the chickens free range, has it’s drawbacks, but they love it so and we love interacting with them in our day to day routine. We also know that we can not trust the dogs to not give chase, as they have not grown up with hens or the total freedom of the farm and that we are going to have to really work on getting everyone to work together. Since we’re still not totally fenced in, we don’t let the dogs free range! Gypsy has been the only dog that I can trust around the hens, but she still eyes them with great interest, it’s just her old body doesn’t respond as her brain would like and she is very concerned about my approval and knows to curb that craving to chase. Still, I wouldn’t leave her loose in the yard because of the chance that she might hurt them.

All’s well that ends well… and it’s clear to me why a good rooster can save the day. Bucka Roo is a good boy and he got a whole quarter of a slice of pound cake for his bravery! He LOVES pound cake… haha… and I made sure that he actually got to eat it by locking up the ladies in the barn for a few minutes so he could actually enjoy his treat. Normally he looses as the ladies snatch stuff away from him without any thought to the matter. But he was a happy boy to get to enjoy his treat without bother.

And I think that maybe, just this time, the girls would have given him a chance to eat in peace. I’m sure that they all moved him up a notch in their “he’s my guy” swoon and sigh meter.