Strategies crafty chicken-thieves use

It is not only because chickens can feed off and destroy all your flowering beans that we construct a nice, wire-mesh fence to limit their movements. No. Sometimes, actually many times, it is to protect them from chicken thieves, both human and animal.

When I lived in Nakuru’s KFA Mackay Estate, a young boy — name withheld —once stole 2 chicks from the neighbouring Shauri Yako Estate. He actually picked the chicks when no one was watching and put them in his pockets. When he reached home, he placed them by their doorstep and when his mum asked where the chicks were from, the crafty thief explained that he was only walking home when the chicks started following him. Despite his best efforts to ‘scare them back’, the stubborn chicks just kept up with him. See, your chickens can be stolen from you.

But also, there is a very good reason you should ensure your chickens are well fenced in. And the reason is a cunny animal that the Luo call Ogwang’ and the champion chicken-eaters of Kenya, the AbaLuhyia various call Esimba or Risimba. This is the mongoose, that long tailed animal whose plural term is a cause of a lot of English exams; is it Mongeese or Mongooses? Anyway, the Mongoose has a cunning way of capturing loitering chickens. So, it is said, the Risimba turns and opens its backside towards a chicken and therein, a chicken spots a speck that looks like an edible maize seed. When the curious chicken goes cranes its neck to reach the tempting ‘seed’, lo and behold, the mongoose snaps closed its backside, trapping the chicken, and runs off for a free sumptuous meal in the bushes. In these Western parts of Kenya, the Ogwang has been a pain in the neck of many chicken farmers.

But recently, farmers are beginning to realise there are even more cunning chicken thieves out here. These are the Homo sapiens. Having realised chasing chickens and grabbing them increases their risks of being caught as a result of the chicken’s makelele, the crafty human chicken-thieves have started intoxicating the chickens. Simply, the thieves, mostly peddlers of chang’aa and busaa, collect a bagful of machicha, the sweet, roasted and fermented solid form that is used to prepare the brew and spread it out to the targeted, stray chicken. The foolish chicken, driven by immense greed and gluttony, launches on the machicha, hogging it quickly before other kukus notice. Woe unto this chicken, for in a matter of minutes, the fermented, 3rd generation machicha begin to work its magic inside it and intoxication sets in.

You should see a drunk kuku! Its legs refuse to carry it and cross against each other, it’s crowing becomes erratic and the babawa fly away, one to the north and the other to the west. Unable to use its legs, it tries the neck or head for locution to no avail. It is then that the salivating mwizi wa kuku easily picks the unfortunate chicken and whistles away towards a sumptuous meal. No chicken clutter is heard and the thief is never caught. Hence the reason you should look for the best chicken mesh and rein in their movement. Mumeskia?