Latest / Good Morning From The Chicken Coop! / Season 4 - Episode 274 - Lessons from a missing chicken

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Season 4 - Episode 274 - Lessons from a missing chicken · Good Morning From The Chicken Coop!

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome to the good morning from the Chicken
• 0:04
  Coop podcast. My name is Kim Johnson and I am
• 0:07
  a mastermindset coach, creative strategist, and also happened to
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  be a farmer. This is my chicken coop and I
• 0:12
  come out here every day to record a podcast to teach
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  distinctions, possibilities, new ways of thinking, and just bring
• 0:20
  some joy into the world. So welcome to the coop and let's
• 0:23
  start your day off in a fantastic way.
• 0:27
  Hey everybody, good morning. What a story I have to tell you.
• 0:32
  OK, so a couple of days ago actually I think it was the end,
• 0:37
  maybe it was the end of the weekend, beginning of the week.
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  I went out, counted the chickens at night and we only had 54, not
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  55. Like Oh no, someone's missing
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  now. It's dark and it's it's dark at
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  this point. So I'm like, OK, maybe she's
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  hiding somewhere. Maybe she'll show up in the
• 0:56
  morning and I can't tell who it is.
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  I'm suspecting that it's one of the little tiny ones that moved
• 1:02
  in from the neighbor when they got divorced and everything went
• 1:06
  to hell in a handbasket rather quickly.
• 1:08
  For those of you who are new, the neighbors chickens jumped
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  the fence and moved in with my chickens which is very
• 1:15
  interesting. They did that because usually
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  flocks don't get along, but my girls are really chill because
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  they have a lot of space and not just in their coop but in their
• 1:24
  run as well as out in the yard. They spend the entire day
• 1:28
  roaming the whole farm so they don't get really uptight about
• 1:31
  this. Roosters were fine with it and
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  overcame 14 birds at that time. And they're little, they're like
• 1:38
  sea brights. So they're, they're a Bantam
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  breed, black and white, super pretty.
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  They're a little flighty. They they're not, they're decent
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  leg egg layers, but they're, they lay tiny white eggs.
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  But they are very flighty and they, you can't touch them and
• 1:53
  they think everything's going to kill them.
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  And because they are the right size, like for a hawk to grab,
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  they are the right size and they know it.
• 2:01
  So they're a little flighty. They get a little scared and
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  oftentimes they would hide in trees.
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  So I he became very accustomed to the fact watching them at the
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  neighbor's house that they would go up in the trees because they
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  just got scared. They he never clipped their
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  wings, which I never clipped wings because I want them to be
• 2:17
  able to fly if they need to. So FYI, we have all these
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  chickens and slowly but surely, because they roam very far and
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  they go in trees and things happen, they have disappeared 1
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  by 1. And we were down to what I
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  thought was 5. And you know, I'm just like, OK,
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  give them the best life they can have while they have it here.
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  So I'm thinking the missing 1 is one of them.
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  I look, I have only four, so I'm like, OK, this is interesting.
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  4. So maybe that hawk that's been
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  hanging around here grabbed one, but there were no signs of
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  feathers, no signs of a struggle.
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  So I was like, OK, so we'll see what happens the next day.
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  No chicken count, Head count, 54, next night, 54, next night
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  54. And this goes on for consecutive
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  nights. All of a sudden I go out last
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  night and I count and there are 55 and I'm like 55.
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  Wait a minute, they're supposed to be 54.
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  I recount again and I'm like, OK, am I just fantasizing?
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  And then I look and there are five of them again, and I'm
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  like, this is bizarre. Where has this chicken been for
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  all these days? Like, was it hiding what
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  happened? And I started to laugh because
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  it's really such a great testament to when you think you
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  know something and you make a conclusion.
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  Is it really true? And I know that chickens hide.
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  And I've heard stories about how chickens will hide for days when
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  they're very scared. They will not move if something
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  is out there and it has scared them.
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  They will hunker down in a Bush and they will not come back
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  until they are sure that their path is clear.
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  And we have a lot of hiding spaces.
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  So they can, you know, get away if something is happening,
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  especially from air attacks. Like I have this little wagon
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  that has flat tires. It's like a wood wagon that you
• 4:17
  would pull behind your car or truck.
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  And it has flat tires. And I parked it, fill it with
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  flowers. It holds my bamboo sticks for
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  the season to prop things up, but they hide underneath it.
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  I've got a tunnel built that's covered in Confederate Jasmine
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  and it blooms very, very thick flowers.
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  But it also has these leathery leaves that nothing can get
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  through. And it grew up over this mesh
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  that my neighbor got for me. So it's it's like a nice little
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  chunk of a tunnel along the edge of the garden.
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  So they can hide in there. But the heat.
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  But she wasn't in either of those places.
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  But I know around the farm there are tons of thickets.
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  There are tons of places that she, I mean, she could have
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  literally been hidden in a flower patch somewhere and I
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  couldn't see her because I'm not cutting anything back.
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  That's dead because I know so that there are cocoons in there.
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  There are little things that are growing, seeds are are dropping
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  into the ground. I'm not touching anything at
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  all. So she could have been hidden
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  anywhere. And it really made me think
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  about how the night that she disappeared, I didn't panic.
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  And I kept saying to myself, maybe she's OK, maybe she's
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  hiding, maybe she's OK, maybe she's hiding.
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  And that's not usually what I do.
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  I usually grab the flashlight and I start walking because I
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  have this gut feeling that something happened.
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  And inevitably, we end up finding someone who's been
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  injured, someone who's been hurt or something has drastically
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  happened. We end up, unfortunately,
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  finding someone who's been killed.
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  But this time I didn't. And I thought, this is so
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  interesting. I had this feeling and I
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  followed it. So the moral of the story today
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  is 1. If you have a feeling, listen to
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  it because often they're right. Like really often they're right.
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  Two, if you have chickens, they will find a way to scare the
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  crap out of you every day. They and if you love your
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  chickens, you will cry a lot if you have them, but they are so
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  quirky and they will find ways to scare the crap out of you.
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  And three, the good news of all of this is that it reminds us
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  that we have to be optimistic. And to me, that's the best part
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  of it. All right, my friends, I hope
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  you have a blessed day and I know the girls will and I will
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  see you tomorrow. Bye.