All of a sudden, Liam screamed, "Daddy, pull over!! He's on the top of the seat... and he's looking at me!!!!" We were driving home from the Charles Stewart chicken farm with 8 hens (22 week old "layers") in the back of Black Mamba. The boys and I were excited--even giddy--like expectant parents as the hens were being delivered from the farm. The helpers had rather unceremoniously tossed them in the back of the car and I must say with pride, they all looked pretty with their brown and white feathers. But things felt suddenly stressful as a rogue hen saw fit to hop up on the back seat and stare malevolently at Liam. We managed to get home practicing a few chicken stiff arms and with Black Mamba wafting of chicken poop.
Then, the really fun part. Getting the chickens from the car to the coop! I had been psyching myself up to be brave and model for the boys how to just get in there and grab them. I was even practicing for the moment and steeling my courage in the days leading up by picking up frogs that hop around our house. No yolking, I was anxious that I would fail in from of the boys and Black Mamba would have to become the chicken coop. Never fear, once you get behind the unsuspecting chicken and firmly grab around the body, controlling the wings, they are like feathery putty with a beak. After getting several hens into the coop, Liam wanted to give it a try and he did great!
On the way home, one of the chickens laid our first egg. We gave it to Brenda, our day guard, so that she could add it to her lunch. Apparently, these hens can lay 300 eggs in a year. With 8 hens, I think we'll have plenty of eggs coming our way!
Micah, Liam and Elizabeth taking a peek at the nesting boxes where we can, hopefully, grab eggs each morning. (=
Happy hens. We're going to keep them in the coop for a week and then free range them in our yard during the day. We've spied some creatures around the yard that look like mongoose, so the free range idea might be short lived. But, we'll see! A fun experiment has commenced. So eggciting! But who's going to be cleaning out the coop? Micah?
Way to be brave, Bill! I still find rounding up chickens challenging. You'll have to show me some time when we're in the US around some chickens.
ReplyDeleteThey're really quite docile. I'm growing quite fond of "the girls" and it might actually be too difficult to end our time here with a chicken feast.
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