Ever wondered how to transport a chicken in your car when you don’t have a cage or a box?
While traveling in East Africa several years ago, my wife and I faced just such a quandary. We had traveled about 4 hours by very rough roads to a small town where we were the lunch guests at the home of the local public school headmaster.
After lunch was over, the headmaster presented my wife with two chickens to take home with us. This was an honor that the headmaster was showing us and we could not refuse them without causing offense due to local customs. Not knowing what to do, my father in law came up with a great idea for safely transporting the chickens home. He went around to the back of the truck and rummaged through the “junk” that all work trucks have.
Out came two blue, plastic “shopping bags”, like the ones you get at the grocery store. He then proceeded to poke a hole in the bottom corner of each bag and placed the bag over the chicken and poked the chickens head out the little hole. We gently put the legs and tail of the bird into the bag and then tied it up using the bag handles.
The bird was content and rode all the way back home over very rough roads at my feet. It never squirmed or even appeared agitated. We drove along the dirt roads for about 4 more hours and when we arrived at our destination, the chicken was relaxed and unharmed. Best of all, there was no mess.