“Bawk, Bawk, Bawk, Bawkaaaaaaaaaaaaak!” The screams and shouts of the two rival Cluck Gangs – the coop dwelling “Lucky Layers” led by Lucky and the “Escapees” led by Gabby – could be heard all through the day and long into the evening on Woodpecker Farm. Every morning they would wake the neighbours with their riotous clucking arguments about all manners of petty conflicts, including whether the hens could be allowed to eat their own eggs for nutrients (Gabby’s argument) or if they had to leave them in the boxes so that old Lady Luna could sit on them until they hatched (Lucky’s argument).
Some mornings they would come upon an agreement such as; they could only eat the eggs during late fall and winter so that in the spring the chicks would be allowed to hatch, or that the younger hens were only allowed to sleep on the ground while the older hens got to sleep up on the perches high above with lots of room to move their wings. Most of the understandings only lasted a few days until there would be another cluck-off about some other little thing that was making them mad.
The gangs were in constant disarray. The problem was that if a hen wanted to stay in the coop for a day she would have to join the Lucky Layers, but then, if the next day the same hen wanted to go exploring, she would have to join the Escapees to be granted safe passage out of the coop. This was a dilemma for Peanut seeing as she had only just started laying eggs and was getting ready to settle down into a more relaxed lifestyle, but couldn’t seem to want to get rid of her old one entirely.
“I want to be in both gangs!” She cried one morning as Gabby and Lucky fought over her, while they waited to be let out into the main run. The whole coop stilled, silently anticipating what might happen next.
“I beg your pardon!” clucked an offended Lucky.
“This is unprecedented!” Gabby screamed as she flew down from a perch to stand on one foot in front of Peanut, evaluating if she had heard right.
Peanut shrunk under the scrutinising gaze of the older hen, taking a step back and whispering in a small voice, “I just wanted to lay my eggs inside and play outside whenever I wished to, without having to switch gangs every single time!” Her voice had risen to a loud undignified cluck by the end of the speech, rendering the two matriarchs speechless.
“That’s enough!” Old Lady Luna decreed from her vantage point on top of the divider between nesting boxes. “Peanut, you are hereby banished to the far corner while the older hens discuss what’s going to happen next.”
Peanut had expended all her annoyance on the conversation and so she didn’t put up a fight when Rosa, a kind younger hen, led her into the corner to wait. A couple of minutes later, after a long and heated discussion, Gabby and Lucky spoke in unison:
“Peanut the pullet, you are to be sent outside for a week, day and night, while we hens discuss how to deal with this new way of thinking.”
That morning when they were let out of the chicken coop, Peanut flew out with the Escapees, exploring the garden, bamboo patch, wild rose bushes and more until she realised that she needed to find a good hiding place for her eggs. When she asked the other Escapees for advice, they just clucked disapprovingly and turned away, claiming that Gabby had decreed that no one talk to “Peanut the Outcast”.
Peanut was devastated. But still, she needed to find a safe place to hide her eggs. She searched high and low, jumping onto storage shelves and sneaking into the crawl space under the human house, until finally, she came upon the perfect spot for a stash. It was secluded and quiet, somewhere no one would look… behind the big green canoe lent up against the garage and sheltered from the rain by the roof overhang. She immediately started digging a hole large enough for a nest, all the while chirping happily to herself about how good she was at living on her own.
The next morning she headed out in search of food, eating whatever she could find: worms, slugs, grass, and other flying insects, until she noticed a bird feeder. It was not big and red like the one she ate from back in the coop, but a small one, filled to the brim with the kind of seed she and the hens would only get on special occasions. The feeder was hanging high in the air so she couldn’t reach it, but, when the small loud little flying birds ate from it, some of the seeds would fall on the ground untouched.
Peanut was so happy and excited at her discovery that she gorged herself on the seeds, walking home with a crop so big that she barely squeezed through the small opening into her nest under the canoe. Peanut was living the good life. She spent her days piling up the eggs in her nest, eating seed after glorious seed from under the bird feeder, and exploring beyond the confines of the property. Across the road, she visited the neighbour-roosters. She chased the deer and had fantastical adventures that she would one day tell her chicks as bedtime stories.
But too soon came the end of the week and the date of her meeting with Lucky and Gabby. Peanut flew into the run with confidence and a plan. In the privacy of the coop, she began.
“I have enjoyed life outside the coop and would like to make it my permanent home. Therefore, I would like to apply for the job of Explorer.”
“If you really want to, then I’m okay with it,” declared Lucky.
“Good riddance,” Gabby confirmed.
Peanut ran-flapped away, clucking with glee.