Chicken Snatching

In the pre-dawn hours, I delivered 13 chickens to the poultry processing house. As I was transferring the hens from a dog crate to a chicken crate, a hen escaped.

Being a chicken, she ran toward the light in the building rather into the darkness of the parking lot and open fields.

The worker looked toward the hen and then at a chicken hook -- a four-foot metal pole with a hook on the end. That's what I use to catch chickens. If I can hook her foot, then I can get close enough to grab the bird.

He opted not to use the hook.

Instead he walked sideways toward the hen. When within a few feet, his arm shot from his side like a snake's tongue. He grabbed the hen by the leg, swung her off the ground and deposited her in the crate.

Neither the hen nor I said a thing.

I want to learn the fine art of chicken snatching. I will practice, once it stops raining and isn't so muddy. When I get good, I will move on to the art of fly snatching.