The vagrant chickens of Farthing Street  have been reunited with their owner, who has vowed to clip their wings.

Who knew that chickens could fly?  I sure didn’t.
Of course, their flying acumen  is  akin to the  Wright Brothers first flight.  These things aren’t ready to make a transatlantic voyage yet, but they were able to clear a fence and glide happily across another neighbor’s yard before landing in our tomato patch.  (I’ve  heard that chickens in the wild actually nest in trees.  I’m sure the life of a wild chicken is “nasty, brutish and short” though.)

I had shooed one of the little darlings out of our sweet potato patch.  It turns out she knew before I did that the sweet potatoes were ripe for harvest.  When I went out to water the patch yesterday, I discovered a little dug-out area with the orange end of a sweet potato peeking through.  They are Covington sweet potatoes, which are a little smaller than your run-of-the-mill sweet potatoes, but still just as tasty.  Hooray!

Now I feel inspired to attend Durham’s own  ChickenStock Festival this Saturday down at Bull City Burger and Brewery. (I told you the Bull City is crazy about chickens.)  The fun starts at 4:00 p.m. and is described as a “free, fun and funky edu-party that brings the community together to learn about urban chicken-raising and sustainable living.”   The Bulltown Strutters, Durham’s own New Orleans-style jazz band, will be providing the musical entertainment.  Inspired I’m sure by Oktoberfest, they’ll be playing “The Chicken Dance.”  That alone would be worth the price of admission,  but happily, the event is free.

Peace out, chicken lovers.

When I pulled open the curtains  this morning, there were three enormous chickens in our backyard.  I have no idea where they came from.   I love Durham.

They are still in the backyard–consider this a live blog–and I still haven’t been able to find the owners.  It’s very amusing.   Of course, it’s all fun and games until they start eating your food.  When I  went inside for a few minutes, they descended on our ‘mater patch with a ravenous fury and started feasting on   cherry tomatoes. So much for tonight’s salad. They seem interested in the sweet potatoes too.

The timing is uncanny.  Those of you who read my last post know that I  pretty much swore off chickens.  I feel like they are asking me for a second chance.