I have one little girl. Down the road there are four. And Sunday they all came over to play, I sent them to check the eggs and let the chickens out for their evening stroll. Almost immediately there were shrieks of terror and thundering footsteps. I knew before I heard a word the first snake…
I’ve never had a desire to incubate eggs and I honestly don’t like letting hens set a nest. It always seems to end poorly for the hatchlings. But when I found this nest in the hay, for some reason, I left it alone. A few days later I spy the mama. My funny, anti-social hen…
The Cherokee County Junior Livestock Show was a highlight of my youth from the time I was around 8 years old until I was 17. I showed broilers, of course. Always held in late March the weather is cold, windy and wet but never enough to dampen the lively atmosphere and contagious excitement of hundreds…
I get a kick out of people who are afraid to let their kids get dirty. Now, I’m not saying you should let them lick the grocery cart handle, but a little honest mud (you know, dirt and water), never hurt anybody. Yes, one in a million catch some weird, awful, unheard of mud disease…
There are roosters and there are roosters. Roosters are a lot like men. Some are tall and some are short. Some are loud, others quiet. Many are bold, others meek. Some are colorful, some dull. Some protective, some just plain…chicken. Roosters can be adorable or aggressive. Some are fluffy, others are missing a few feathers. …
I slept until 8:00 today. Well, I stayed in bed until 8:08. It was glorious. Until I realized my step-son had turned on the coffee pot at 5:30 and it went off at 7:30 which meant the coffee was cold when poured into my favorite mug. I can’t stand cold coffee. I gulped down a…
Passing by the coop recently I saw some gals in the boxes performing their daily egg duties. The first hen attempted to hide behind some wisps of hay. “If I can’t see her then she can’t see me” The second hen chose the ‘pretend the lady with the camera doesn’t exist’ approach. Maybe. Its hard…
The last day of 2014 was cold, wet and just plain miserable for all intents and purposes. Except for reading on the sofa, which is how I spent most of the day. I read “Water for Elephants” for the second time. Then I started “All Creatures Great and Small” for the fourth time. James Herriot…
I adore my chickens. To me they are precious and irreplaceable, kinda of like my daughter. Only I love my daughter way more. I haven’t been able to spend as much time as I would like with either one of them. As a retail slave I’ve been serving the public for 14 years, 11 of…
Chicken keeping has been, and always will be, laced with tragedy. Yesterday I turned my darlings out on the way to the deer stand so they could scratch about for a couple of hours before bedtime. As I sat nestled in my tree I could hear our neighbors shouting at their dogs, nothing out of…
The Wicked Chicken 