Wildfire evacuated chickens fly the coop in Armstrong

When Laurel Eckhoff McPherson was evacuated from her North Okanagan farm earlier this week, she had lots to do to move her family and livestock to safety, but she didn’t expect chasing chickens would be one of them.

The Township of Spallumcheen issued an evacuation order on Aug. 1 due to the threat from the Bradley Creek wildfire and many evacuated residents like McPherson own livestock.

“I fell like pretty lucky when an evacuation is ordered because I’ve lived here a long time and have an extensive network,” she said. “I feel worse for people who don’t have anywhere to go with their animals.”

McPherson found a temporary home for her goats and took her chickens and dogs to her sister’s place in Armstrong where she contained the small flock under a trampoline surrounded by netting.

The backyard chickens, called Seramas, are the tiniest chickens in the world and can fly. She keeps their wings unclipped so they can escape predators.

By the next morning, one lone chicken remained in the enclosure while the rest had flown into neighbouring yards.

“It turns out they went to the neighbours who have better grass and Saskatoon bushes,” she said. “One had flown to a neighbouring roof.

“I thought ‘oh my God,’ my sister is away and she is going to come home and all her neighbours will be like ‘wow, your chickens have been on the loose.’”

McPherson took to a local social media page to explain the situation.

“I know how neighbourly relations can get messed up so I wanted people to know it was me, not her,” she said.

“The community has been funny about it. People… are having fun with it.”

It isn’t the first time McPherson has been evacuated by a wildfire. The last time she had to move 40 birds, a process she described as very challenging.

“I feel for people with lots of animals to move, it’s stressful because you can’t serve all the needs of everyone and everything in your care,” she said. “You’re torn and can’t be in every spot at once.  

“You could lose everything and the day to day of being evacuated can become like a nightmare.”

She was able to collect her chickens and head back to her farm, Aug. 4, when the evacuation order was rescinded.

“Thanks to the Armstrong community for putting up with us,” McPherson said. “Thanks for your patience.”