140 Hens Abandoned In Woods By Mysterious Person With A Lot Of Extra Chickens

A hen who stops laying eggs is usually a pretty likely candidate for the fryer, but some chickens got off a little bit luckier this week when their farmer decided that he would ditch his 140 hens in the woods rather than dealing with a future of chicken salad, chicken wings, chicken fingers, and more. 

According to The Local, police in Thurgau in northern Switzerland say an unknown person packed 140 white hens up in cardboard boxes and released them all alongside the edge of a forest.

The chicken-leaver probably assumed his or her erstwhile pets would simply go back to nature and peck at bugs in the woods and live happy, wild, chicken lives, but actually they caused a big problem for local authorities. Police and veterinary experts spent quite some time coaxing all 140 of the white hens to get back into their boxes and leave the woods. Eventually all the strays were taken into custody, and police told concerned citizens that the hens were being "housed humanely."

It will probably be difficult to find 70-140 people in the area who are looking to rescue a pet hen, especially if she does not lay eggs, so some of those chickens may still wind up in some of our best chicken recipes.