Chicken Scratches
Thank you all for your wonderful comments from the last post. They made me smile.
Tonight I will write about Chickens.
Why chickens? you ask. Because chickens are in and of themselves funny. I mean just the thought of a post about chickens cracks me up.
Anyway, like any good Midwestern family, we had chickens and goats and sheep and dogs. But the chickens create the best stories. This is because chickens are extremlly dumb. Ok. Sheep are dumb too, but they hide it under all that wool.
Our first chickens were hatched from some eggs from the local horse farm. It was just our luck to get 4 roosters. If you don't know anything about chickens you need to know this: roosters hate other roosters. Being in the same area as another rooster gets them all riled up and ready to fight. Our roosters, living in the same pen as one another, were on the verge of a poultry war every second. Occasionally they would mistake us kids for roosters and would attack us. We used to sit on the fence posts of their pen and dare each other to run through the chicken pen to the other side. If you didn't get scratched or scream, you won. We gave one of those roosters to a family down the road. They had their nephew come visit and he was attacked and scratched by the rooster. The next day he got chicken pox and swore it was from that stupid chicken.
We were given a chicken called Chicky Babe, a beautiful Rhode Island Red. She came from a couple who lived in the 'burbs and had gotten Chicky Babe as a chick for Easter. They didn't really think about what they were going to do when Chicky Babe grew up. Not many neighborhoods let you raise chickens (however, there is one neighborhood by the high school that hasn't changed their zoning laws and you can raise chickens there). This couple domesticated Chicky Babe and wanted to keep her so they tried to make it work. Chicky Babe had other plans and wanted to see the world. Every opportunity she got she tried to escape. She would hide in their truck bed and jump out at the next stop. Her getaways were generally thwarted, but she almost succeeded once. She chose to jump out at a gas station. He owner realized how upset his wife would be if Chicky Babe escaped or was killed and began to chase her. Soon everyone at the gas station was chasing Chicky Babe around. She was finally caught and then given to us.
My Mamaw can hypnotize chickens. She can lay them down, put them under and they will just lay there, like they are dead. It's really cool. I guess she used to get in trouble as a girl for this. She lived on a chicken farm and her mom would come out and find 10 chickens just laying in the dirt. Eventually it wears off and they jump up and go back to eating bugs. Best thing to see ever! She taught me how to do this. One of those valuable life lessons passed down my family. I now have skills. Guys only date girls with great skills. If you ask me, I'll show you how it's done. But you have to supply the chicken.
Tonight I will write about Chickens.
Why chickens? you ask. Because chickens are in and of themselves funny. I mean just the thought of a post about chickens cracks me up.
Anyway, like any good Midwestern family, we had chickens and goats and sheep and dogs. But the chickens create the best stories. This is because chickens are extremlly dumb. Ok. Sheep are dumb too, but they hide it under all that wool.
Our first chickens were hatched from some eggs from the local horse farm. It was just our luck to get 4 roosters. If you don't know anything about chickens you need to know this: roosters hate other roosters. Being in the same area as another rooster gets them all riled up and ready to fight. Our roosters, living in the same pen as one another, were on the verge of a poultry war every second. Occasionally they would mistake us kids for roosters and would attack us. We used to sit on the fence posts of their pen and dare each other to run through the chicken pen to the other side. If you didn't get scratched or scream, you won. We gave one of those roosters to a family down the road. They had their nephew come visit and he was attacked and scratched by the rooster. The next day he got chicken pox and swore it was from that stupid chicken.
We were given a chicken called Chicky Babe, a beautiful Rhode Island Red. She came from a couple who lived in the 'burbs and had gotten Chicky Babe as a chick for Easter. They didn't really think about what they were going to do when Chicky Babe grew up. Not many neighborhoods let you raise chickens (however, there is one neighborhood by the high school that hasn't changed their zoning laws and you can raise chickens there). This couple domesticated Chicky Babe and wanted to keep her so they tried to make it work. Chicky Babe had other plans and wanted to see the world. Every opportunity she got she tried to escape. She would hide in their truck bed and jump out at the next stop. Her getaways were generally thwarted, but she almost succeeded once. She chose to jump out at a gas station. He owner realized how upset his wife would be if Chicky Babe escaped or was killed and began to chase her. Soon everyone at the gas station was chasing Chicky Babe around. She was finally caught and then given to us.
My Mamaw can hypnotize chickens. She can lay them down, put them under and they will just lay there, like they are dead. It's really cool. I guess she used to get in trouble as a girl for this. She lived on a chicken farm and her mom would come out and find 10 chickens just laying in the dirt. Eventually it wears off and they jump up and go back to eating bugs. Best thing to see ever! She taught me how to do this. One of those valuable life lessons passed down my family. I now have skills. Guys only date girls with great skills. If you ask me, I'll show you how it's done. But you have to supply the chicken.
posted by Andi at
11:38 PM
