So, we've got this chicken we call Yellow Chicken. She's actually a Buff Orpington. Here's her story.

Last year, for our first batch of broiler (meat) chickens, we opted to go with a heritage breed and raised Buff Orpingtons (since then, we've tried other breeds, which we prefer). While we were raising them, though, we lost a few laying hens. Since Buffs are considered a dual-purpose breed, on slaughter day we decided to keep a few back to replenish the laying flock. You may recall my post about Playing God and selecting which hens would live and die that day. Yellow Chicken survived and was moved from the meat tractor into the laying tractor.

She narrowly escaped death yet again when we lost a few other Buffs to a fox attack. We gave two of her friends to some friends of ours and that left her as the last Buff Orpington on our farm, which made the name Yellow Chicken very fitting as she was the only one.

So, she was living out her life as a part of our small backyard flock of seven when we brought home the giant chicken wagon and its 100+ inhabitants. It no longer made any sense for us to care for 7 hens in our backyard, only to then drive over to the farm and care for the other flock. So, we moved our backyard hens in with the new gang.

The first night, all 100+ of the new chickens crowded into the wagon to roost, just as they'd been accustomed to at their old farm. The backyard flock, though, was confused. We had to catch them and put them into the wagon so that we could close them in for the night. The second night, only 3 of the seven were still out at dark and had to be caught. The third night, it was just Yellow Chicken. The fourth night, it was just Yellow Chicken. You get the picture.

So, each night, we would have to take our chicken catcher out there, climb up under the wagon (which has a mesh wire bottom, so you're just asking to be pooped on), and fish her out of her hiding spot. We were afraid we'd broken her wing one night because she put up such a fight, but she seemed fine the following day.

We were planning to slaughter our latest batch of meat chickens Saturday morning, so it was time to make a decision about Yellow Chicken.

Here were the facts to consider:

1. She's costing us at least 5 minutes every day as we struggle to catch her, and she may get hurt in the process. We could just leave her out at night, but that's just inviting a predator attack.

2. Those 5 minutes per day may be worth it if she were a good layer . . . but she's not. She's never been. Plus, chickens' productive peak only lasts about 2 years. Beyond that, you're just running a chicken retirement village, which is not our intention.

3. We were planning to slaughter Saturday anyway, so it really wouldn't be much extra work -- just one extra bird.

Based on all this, we decided that we'd go ahead and slaughter her Saturday. We took our chicken catcher and cage with us Friday night. When we caught her this time, we'd put her in the cage to await morning slaughter.

Guess what? When we got to the farm, Yellow Chicken was not in her hiding spot. She was up in the wagon, roosting with everyone else. And she has been every night since.

Looks like she's escaped death yet again!