Our chickens have never come from the smartest eggs in the carton. We first purchased chickens in 2003. We had about forty chickens. They were safe from predators just by their number. Do you know how many eggs that many chickens can lay in a week? Each laid one or two a day. We were handing out dozens of eggs to anyone that stood still long enough. Anyone with their hands out to shake, to pray, to hug, to grab the door knob, wash their hands, got a dozen eggs.

I came home from work one hot summer afternoon. I always count heads as I'm feeding. This particular day I come up short by about ten chickens. I searched inside the hen house, in the yard, around the field. I saw a roll of fencing with feathers sticking out of it! What???!!!! The chickens were inside the rolled up fencing and got STUCK!! They couldn't back out or go forward. So when the first one got in there, did the others say "WOW getting stuck in that fencing looks like fun?! I think I'll try it too!?" They were in there so long they had laid EGGS! We had to unroll 100ft. of fencing to free our flock. From then on the fencing was stood up vertically.

During the next summer we remodeled our house and one of the construction workers asked us about the chickens and we offered them half our flock (by that time I think we were down to about 35 so we gave him half the flock. Hooray! twenty less mouths to feed!! But then their numbers were smaller and they didn't seem such a fearsome feathered flock and became the target of frequent predators. My husband sat on the couch one afternoon and saw a chicken go running with all its might past our open french doors, (watching a chicken run with all its might is hilarious!Must be how Jurassic Park producers decided their dinosaurs should run!) then right behind her was a low flying hawk hoping to get our fat little hen for dinner. My husband jumped up off the couch to see who would win and the hawk was climbing higher into the sky without our hen in its claws. About every other year since, we have purchased a new family of chickens, for one reason or another.

I hate roosters. Have you ever seen a rooster size something up? It walks sideways flapping its wings. Like its either going to mate or attack. Two or more roosters will fight until they are bloodied. The loser will leave to die or just leave. We would see it occasionally for awhile. One year we had a BIG rooster we called Foghorn Leghorn. He had a loud crow that our neighbors across the highway, through the residential area and the next dirt road over swore they heard every morning. One day my three year old grandson was in the yard and Foghorn Leghorn came up to my beloved grandson walking sideways and flapping his wings. He was sizing up my grandson!! I ran in between them and pulled my grand away from the mean monster. He joined the food chain later that day.

But we still have chickens. The coop is deteriorated. The floor is dirt. The roof is leaking. We have tastier eggs than we've ever bought in the grocery store. If they would learn how to open the door and let themselves out in the morning and shut the door at night they would be near perfect. As long as we don't have any roosters.

...farm living is the life for me. Sanetha