Well, we have a pretty good idea how the wandering Dominique has found herself away from home—twice—when darkness falls. She isn’t very smart! Today she was making distressed squawking sounds by the fence near the vegetable garden—she could see the coop from there, but the only way to get to it was to go completely around the house. Cherisse and I tried to herd her in the right direction, but she did a crazy loop around me and got into the flower garden…where she ran back and forth by the garden fence, again looking at her coop but not able to get there. She has found her way to the gardens and back on a daily basis; how can she possibly forget where to go? Since it was nearly dark, Cherisse got a batten (a long piece of wood) and used it to guide her out of the garden and around the house. Once she got halfway around she knew where she was, and made a crazy dash for the coop. Everyone else was inside, already on the roosts.

We collected seven eggs again today—three from RI Reds (large and darker brown), two from Anconas (white) and two from Dominiques (smaller and light brown). One Dominique either isn’t producing eggs, or more likely, is laying them somewhere else. My money is on the wanderer.