Me and Chickens

Don't ask why, but I like chickens! As spring approaches, farm stores in the area have galvanized stock tanks in their stores made into chick and duckling brooders. Year after year, I wonder how it would be to purchase some chicks and supplies, and take them home for my own yard. I love to watch chickens being chickens. I like hearing roosters crow. I like the thought of fresh eggs. To stand in the yard and throw feed to chickens and watch them scratch and eat would be like bliss to me.


I know at least one of my grandmas, and probably both, would get chicks in the spring. I assume for eggs, but for sure to have "fryers" on hand for eating. Earlier in my folks' married years, I don't know if they raised chickens, but they raised rabbits once, and even a calf. (Little "Calfie" - after he was butchered, they couldn't eat him, and had to give the meat away!) By the time I came along, we just had cats and an occasional dog. But at one point, I wanted some chickens pretty bad, and begged and begged to get some. So my folks and I went to the hatchery at a nearby town, and got a dozen white Leghorn chickens. We took them home and set them up in a box with a lamp and food and water. We eventually readied our old chicken house for them, and after they were big enough, they moved in there.


That was a good experience for me to have those chickens, and I had a lot of fun with them. I'd let them out to run around in the yard and have a little freedom. I tried and tried luring them to me with bread bits so I could catch them and hold them. Sometimes it worked! That was awesome to me at the time that I was HOLDING A CHICKEN!


As they got older, I got a little more leery of them. Since they were just for the sake of me having chickens, they were all roosters, I think. Perhaps if I'd had some hens, and gotten some eggs, I might've been a little more encouraged about the whole deal. As it was, those spurs on their legs became mighty intimidating!


Finally the "chicken project" ran its course, and we gave them to an aunt and uncle. Later, they said they had tried to eat them, and it was like trying to chew rubber bands. That would make sense, with my letting them out and chasing them all around the yard.


So maybe someday, if the time is right, I'll give chickens another try, this time with a little more productivity in mind, such as eggs, instead of just as pets.