“sneaking off” is a game that often occurs when your back is turned and your chicken thinks it wants to explore somewhere she knows she is not supposed to. It is often a prelude to hide and seek. Remember a chicken is a sneaky little creature and will check you are not looking as she carefully makes her way to forbidden territory. She will stop along the way and pretend to be scratching around just in case you spot her then slowly sneak out of sight.
Do not be fooled into thinking that a flock of chickens stood around scratching and pecking is an innocent flock scratching and pecking. there is no suc thing as an "innocent" flock, it is really a collective cover up for an attempt at sneaking off. They usually drop out of the flock in ones until there is no-one left, sneaking off will happen slowly so you don’t notice. “Them Chickens Is Organised” and don’t you forget it.
Aim of the game:
The aim of this game really depends upon your point of view. To a chicken the aim is to explore forbidden territory. Your aim is to keep the chickens in sight and safe from – well anything including passing traffic, predators, oh and the inside of your home, which is another chicken exploration favourite.
Equipment:
- 1 sneaky chicken usually accompanied by at least one other
Rules
- A chicken learns where she is not supposed to go fairly quickly into your relationship. You might not know the whole list yet but favourite no go area’s usually include;
- The foodie treat store
- Anywhere outside of the garden
- A newly planted flower/veg bed
- Anywhere indoors, remember chickens are rarely house trained!
- Your flock do not need to let you know when they intend to head into forbidden territory. Either you have to spot the secret signs or you have to assume that they are always trying to sneak off.
- A chicken is not sneaking off she is actually quietly minding her own business having fun elsewhere. It is just more exciting because it is forbidden.
- Any forbidden place is automatically assumed to be a good source of tasty treats or new friends, and therefore needs to be explored whenever possible.
- The game only ends when you either have to start playing hide and seek, due to missing chickens, or your chickens get fed up of being called back and start to do something else.
- If you have to go searching for your chickens whether they are in a forbidden place or not, you lose.
- The introduction of foodie treats makes this game void as you are cheating, you lose.
- At all times remember your chickens are cute, cuddly and your favourite food providers, not the sneaky cunning creatures they sometimes appear to be.
How to play:
Release your flock of cheerful chickens into your garden and start playing talking to yourself. If you spot one or more chickens heading in the direction of any forbidden places you call out “Where are you going”, then try to position yourself between the forbidden place and your chicken to herd her back to your preferred place. At all times during the herding process you keep talking to her in a chastising manner to reinforce the knowledge that she was heading into a forbidden place. This admonishment makes you feel better however do not be surprised if your chickens answer back, they are bilingual even if you are not and she is carefully explaining why you should allow her to continue exploring where she was.
Having got your chicken back where you want her, resume talking to yourself. Eventually another attempt will be made to explore a forbidden place. Keep this up until either
- your chickens find something else to do or
- it is time to put them back in the run or
- you have started playing hide and seek instead, see rule 6.
Winner
- If you manage to keep your chickens away from all the forbidden places you currently know of, you are the winner, see rule 6.
- If your chickens successfully sneak off, or you discover they have accidentally found a new forbidden place, they win. See rule 6.