All of them, off into the night.

(Our hen's one white egg, mixed in with some larger store bought eggs.)

When we started our chicken project, (that's putting a bigger name on it than it deserves-- really, we thought "we should get chickens!" and then two days our landlord brought us some chicks) we had no idea how much drama would be rolled up in the tiny balls of fluff that Thanom handed to us. First there were the chick diseases picking babies off, the night waking, then the young chicken mystery disappearances. There were tears and burials and being generally flummoxed. Goodness.  
 
These are jungle chickens—they are chickens that fly off into the sunset if they so desire. You can’t pen them in without a full roof. So when our landlord brought us three nearly grown chickens after much of our chicken drama, we had a carpenter build a bamboo pen for them, and we kept them in it. They lived in there, growing and being domestic, until one day when I decided it was enough like home for them and they'd probably return again and again.  I wanted to open the door—let them be a little more free range.

But they are not a little more free— they are extremely free range chickens. Our two hens and a rooster cruise the neighborhood, hanging out with their friends, playing video games, drinking coffee and eating scraps. They mix it up. They check out the government buildings, listen in on meetings, check on their favorite trees. Occasionally they come home to eat, change clothes, brood, lay an egg, and then leave again without washing their dishes. Urban extreme free range jungle chickens. Leave it to us, I think. Only us.

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In other news, I wrote about another, more important new project on the Shekina Community website. We're building! And we're so excited.