I bought myself a Christmas present this week. Actually ten Christmas presents. Ten beautiful, large laying hens. They are already hard at work and there is no waiting and wondering. These girls know exactly what to do and perhaps they will influence the others to get to work.
It will always be a learning experience for me to raise chickens. I started when Ron surprised me with a hen and six chicks. I did not even know that I wanted chickens and certainly did not know what to do with them. Three of the chicks did not survive and the other three turned out to be roosters, Claude, Hannah and Brittany. Theirs is a story on its own about how they came to be known as the Hole In The Wall Gang. Meanwhile, here is another remembrance from my old blog of my second batch of chicks who were the Dirty Dozen.
October 24, 2004
SOGGY FEATHERS
Friday the chickens were out for a walk
when a sudden rain storm hit. Ron and I were on the porch, dry and
cozy but could see all twelve of my chicken-children huddling under
the pickup truck. They wanted to get back to their house, but as soon
as one would venture out it would return as quickly to the cover of
the truck.
How could I help these young birds?
Suddenly a light-bulb moment had me heading after my umbrella. Taking
the point at the back end of the pickup and calling to my chickens, I
ran toward the chicken house. Glancing back over my shoulder there
were twelve wobbly young chicks following close behind me despite the pouring rain. Soon they
were all safe and warm in their house. This human mother-hen emerged victorious.
Ron met my return to the dry porch with his big ass grin as he had observed my entire performance in utter dismay.
I have to tell you that this story is especially funny now (as I watched all of my chickens out in the rain yesterday) that I know chickens can and will stay out in the rain and I never needed to make that crazy run in the first place. Of course Ron knew that:)