She realised her mistake
You may recall my email about my chicken-sitting responsibilities. One of the hens had escaped for the second time and had led me on a merry dance round next door’s garden before I could catch her.
Well, what happened next proves that hens as not as feather-brained as some people say.
The day after my hidden humiliation (well-hidden from humans at least, as only the hen saw me chasing her around the garden) I arrived to put them to bed.
What I found was 7 hens on the inside of the gate to their part of the garden and 1 hen on the outside!
She had obviously got out again and had spent the day in next door’s garden, but she had then found her way back – but not to where she should have been.
I opened the gate, taking care not to let the other 7 hens out, and she wandered in as if she owned the place!
And that was the pattern from then.
When I get there she is either waiting by the gate to be let in, or she comes running from next door when she hears me arrive.
I think I know why. When I go to tuck them up for the night, I take them a treat. Some lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, sweetcorn or a nice piece of melon.
These act in 2 ways:
- It gives them a little something extra at bedtime, and
- It persuades them to come into their enclosure where they have their hen house.
I shut the door so they can’t escape while I sort out their food and water.
The times when I have had to retrieve the hen from next door, she has missed out on these, as they were all gone by the time I returned her to the coop. She has probably been told about this, so decided she didn’t want to miss out.
She now listens out for me and re-appears just in time.
We can all learn from our mistakes so we don’t repeat them.
But some business owners won’t try something new because of the fear of making a mistake.
Unfortunately, all too often this leads to doing what they’ve always done instead of exploring new and innovative ideas. And not taking that calculated risk with something new could adversely affect the company they’ve spent years building. Hell, it could even threaten its very future. So, if you want to try something new with your marketing but are hesitating because you are unsure of the dos and don’ts and fearful of making a mistake