Looked outside early this AM to find one of the chickens in the front yard, just enjoying herself.... Threw on some shoes and headed out with the "chicken bucket" which holds our kitchen scraps...thinking maybe she would follow me to the coop. Nope. She took to the air as soon as she saw me and one would think she was used to flying long distances. Took off over the pasture area and finally came down, to start wandering the acreage.

As I was outside anyway........I proceeded to the coop, to find most all of the hens headed my direction as soon as they saw The Bucket. No idea how many had flown the coop. Called for back up .....to do what we call Chicken Wrangling. Caught all of them minus the one grazing in the pastures. Clipped the wings of everyone we caught before depositing them inside.

The free range lady is giving a whole new meaning to the phrase.

It was so nice here today, I did manage to get all my veggie starts in the ground. Also got a 'gift' start from a friends plant in the ground, it had been living in a bucket for the last couple months....and doing just fine. Fed the rose bushes, as I see they are already leafing out after being pruned. This is only my 2nd year with roses so I'm still experimenting with them. They were gorgeous last year....just hope to do the same this year.

Will take a walk around the place at dusk just to see if I can find the escapee hen and entice her back to the flock!