OCTOBER 12, 2026

We love the budding furry friendship between Sloan and our barn cat, Ovi

Chicken City

A rough transcript of a phone call with my brother this week.

Brother: "Sooo how was your week?"

Ris: “Well…"

Brother: “Oh boy.”

Ris: "No I mean, it was fine. But okay, so we have 29 chickens, right? And they free-range during the day, but at night, they all head back to the coop on their own. Drew and I go out, count everyone, close them in, turn on the electric fence. Then in the morning, we turn it off and let them back out. You know, just the usual chicken stuff. We do it every day, so we don’t really think much of it.

But, the other night, we counted 28.

We counted again.

28.

And again.

Still 28.

One was missing.

The one we called The Eagle.

So The Eagle is an Ameraucana. She has this very alert, bird-of-prey look about her, and she’s always wandering off toward the woods. I’d go bring her back, and she’d look at me like, ‘What? I wasn’t doing anything.’

Anyway, when we realized she was missing, we grabbed our headlamps and went looking.

Nothing. No blood, no feathers, no sign of a struggle.

I went to bed feeling pretty shitty. I mean, I’ve always known that letting the chickens free-range comes with a risk, but I just couldn’t shake off the feeling that we should’ve known better than to let her roam so far.

The next day, we still let the girls do their thing, but we spent more time outside, keeping an eye on everyone and checking around the perimeter.

Sure enough, that night, before closing the coop door, we counted.

27.

And again.

27.

Another one was missing. Another Ameraucana.

Okay... So now we had a problem.

Whatever had figured out that our chickens were wandering around unsupervised was probably going to keep coming back to stock the fox pantry.

So - enough was enough. We didn’t want to keep the girls locked in the coop all day, but we couldn’t just keep letting them roam around and hope for the best.

That next day, we let them free-range one last time while Drew built a whole run. He used 7-foot T-posts, welded wire, and T-post clips for the fence, then scrap wood, chicken wire, and sheer determination for the door.

And that night?

We counted 26.

Another Ameraucana was missing.

Shit.

The next morning, we let the girls into their new run, and they acted like we’d ruined their lives. They' complained. Loudly.

I reminded them it was for their own good, and throughout the day, gave them their favorites - cucumber, cabbage and crushed baked eggshells - as peace offerings.

But of course, we’d overlooked one pretty important detail: the new run didn’t include their favorite spot on the property: Chicken Café.

I think I've told you about Chicken Café? You saw it when you visited. It’s basically their neighborhood bar. They spend every evening there - gossiping, hanging out, and fighting over the best seat in the house.

My niece, River, hanging out at Chicken Café. I'm going to need to see some I.D. miss...

So anyway, we’d left Chicken Café out of the run because we needed to keep a path clear to get to the storage shed behind it.

But between all the complaining, cutting them off from their favorite hangout, and the guilt we were already feeling about the missing girls, we knew we had to figure something out.

Build a tunnel.

A chicken tunnel.

A chunnel.

The girls conversing with the City Planner

So we’ve started calling the whole project Chicken City. We’re planning to keep expanding toward the aspen grove, but, you know, there’s a lot to figure out. Logistics, permits, red tape. It’s basically a new municipality at this point.

Anyway so, Drew was working on the chunnel while the girls hung out in their run and were slowly getting used to their new reality. Then, in the middle of all this, two Ameraucanas came flying out from underneath the porch behind our house.

The two missing Ameraucanas.

Numbers 27 and 28.

We thought they had met the same fate as The Eagle, but no. They'd been hiding under the deck the whole time.

THE WHOLE TIME. You can't make this shit up.

Anyway, Drew finished the chunnel.

We held a small ribbon-cutting ceremony for Chicken City and gave the girls access to Chicken Café.

They were thrilled.

We're still figuring out how much freedom we're comfortable giving them and how much protection they need. I mean, we want them to be chickens and do their thing, but we also don’t want to keep losing them.

But last night, I counted 28.

All Ameraucanas accounted for."

Brother: “All of them?”

Ris: “Well, except The Eagle.”

Brother: “Right. The Eagle. Maybe she just decided to strike out on her own. Go do her own thing.”

Ris: “I hope that’s what happened. It beats the alternative, you know, to think she’s out there somewhere, just not particularly interested in coming home for dinner. "

Brother: “Maybe she’ll come back. You never know.”

Ris: "Yeah. Maybe she will. I guess we’ll just keep the light on for her."

Ris exhales.

Ris: “Anyway. Enough about the chickens. How are you?”

For a closer look at Chicken City, come on over.

That’s what’s been going on around here. Fall is doing its magical confetti thing, the days are getting shorter, we’re trying to get everything buttoned up before winter, and the chickens took over my brain this week.

More soon.

Love always,

Ris & Drew

But don’t worry, the weekend wasn’t all chicken drama...