Attack of the killer chicken!

One would think that chickens are a fairly inocuous creature. Alas, not so, as you can see by the bite mark on my hand. Yes, that's what a chicken bite mark looks like. Aside from feeling pretty silly in relating this story, here goes.

My chicken coop has the nest boxes extending from the back. It's made so they fit into an opening in the barn wall to be able to retrieve eggs from the comfort of the barn. No more going out in blustery weather to collect eggs. There's also a small door through which I place food and water. Ingenuous idea if I do say so myself.

Oh yes, back to the bite. The back of the nest boxes has a hinged door to close them off so the chickens can't get into the barn from their coop. When I open the nest box door any chickens roosting in the nests are usually facing away from me with their heads pointing toward the open area of the coop. It's a simple matter of reaching under the chicken from behind and taking the egg.

This morning one was facing toward the back of the door which means she was facing me when I opened the door. Without thinking I reached for the egg which was under her beak. Now I'm sure you know where I'm heading with this so I won't need to embarrass myself further by going into detail. I won the ensueing battle but not without receiving the battle scars to prove it.