If Park Slope residents see something — namely a disoriented chicken — they should say something.
A Slope family’s dream to become a mini dairy farm had its wings clipped now that one of the two birds acquired last week has escaped!
“She flew the coop!” Lax said. “It must have happened within an hour of us bringing them home.”
Until the departure of the hen, dubbed Sophia Lor-hen by the family, Rebecca Lax and her two daughters were bubbling with anticipation at the prospect of fresh blue eggs straight from their backyard coop on the corner of Sixth Avenue and First Street. They had just returned from Pennsylvania with a new pair of cluckers, and had even taken egg orders from First Street neighbors.
Fortunately, chickens — even ones straight from the bucolic Keystone State countryside — don’t tend to wander very far.
Lax and her neighbors have spotted the white-headed hen in backyards along Sixth Avenue, and now suspect that the bird is making her way downhill toward Fifth Avenue.
Lax and her daughters have spotted the hen roosting in trees as night falls, but have yet to capture it. Though safe for now, there is concern that bloodthirsty stray cats or an opportunistic hawk will see the hen for what she is: fresh poultry.
Yet the Kentucky Fried controversy has a tragic side. The family’s only remaining hen, Bonnie Kate, is alone in her coop, too nervous to start laying eggs (chickens are such prima donnas).
“She’s freaked out and stopped laying,” Lax said. “Normally, they lay one every other day or so, depending on how they’re feeling.”
It’s not the first time that The Brooklyn Paper has gotten in the middle of an avian escapade. Just last week, The Paper played an outsized role in saving Gracie, the African Grey Parrot who disappeared last week, but was found after The Brooklyn Paper’s Web site alerted the world that Gracie had taken wing.
In the Lax family case, the stray chicken would surely return if she only knew of the perks of living the urban life.
The family’s previous pair of chickens, “Eggy” and “Danger,” was spoiled to no end (though they had to be returned because Eggy turned out to be a noisy rooster, not a hen. In addition to being divas, chickens make it tough to determine their gender).
“Mom would feed them lasagna and beef,” said Lax’s daughter Olivia Rose Henriques.
“We’re in the Park Slope Food Co-op,” Lax chimed in. “So they would get organic compost-stuff the Co-op didn’t want — spinach, chopped vegetables.”
This is a woman who loves her birds, delightfully sharing photos of Eggy and Danger that she posted on Facebook.
“Aren’t they cutest things?” Lax said before pausing. “Am I crazy? I’m crazy. I’ve got to get a full-time job.”
Anyone with information about the wandering chicken is asked to call (718) 499-4586. All calls will be kept confidential. By the way, there is a $20 reward (yes, you read that right).