One bonus I didn't count on was that the chicken (I only had the one chicken) was a 'cat alarm'. Dang, if a strange cat came into the yard Henrietta would holler her head off until I came out to shoo the cat away. She was okay with 'the deck cat' who belongs to a neighbor and sleeps in the sun on my deck, but any other cat was a no-no. Chickens are better than a burglar alarm.
