Chicken about chickens

Unexpectedly, the chickens came to roost in April.

Well, two chickens came to live on our farm.

Getting chickens had been a standard topic with my sisters every time we got together for a hen party and drank a little wine. They, being cityfolk, didn’t have experience with poultry either, but we all liked the romantic notion of a farmer’s wife earning the proverbial egg-money.

But how many chickens did one need to generate a nest-egg?

I’d had a bit of experience with poultry when my sons were small. They had been invited by friends to go biking on a local trail, and so I had dutifully loaded their bikes into our pickup and drove them to the meeting point. Once they were on their way, I had some time to waste until meeting at the agreed upon destination.

I enjoyed driving along back roads and was thrilled to nd a garage sale in a farmer’s yard. I drove in and looked over the tables. I wasn’t nding anything of use, but then a sign caught my eye: Chickens for sale. Hmmm. That seemed interesting. I inquired about the cost and jumped at the opportunity when I found out they were only $5 each. Some youngsters wrangled up two birds and stuck them in a large cardboard box. Oh, I thought, this is going to make for great giggles the next time I meet with my sisters.

My sons were thrilled with my purchase when I picked them up after the bike trip. All the way home, they talked about names, where the birds would live, what we would feed them, etc. My husband chuckled when he saw what I’d brought home, and we decided their home would be in the hayshed with the older calves.

I looked forward to helping with chores because it was fun watching those chickens strut around the yard. Also, I was anticipating nding an egg or two at some point, and I asked our farmhand to keep an eye out for any.

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It wasn’t until a few weeks later when I questioned him about whether he’d seen any when he laughed good-naturedly and said, “You’re not going to get any eggs. You bought two roosters.”

Ugh! I know now that it’s dif cult to determine the gender of a fowl until they are older.

It didn’t matter though. I quit looking for eggs and started enjoying the personalities of those roosters, and I got pretty good at crowing like them.

Now, many years later, I’ve got the real deal. The aunt of my step-granddaughter-to-be had two hens that were bullying her other birds, so she needed to rehome them. Of course, I said yes when I was asked if the two unruly birds could come live on our farm.

My son bought a coop and set it up, and for the last several months, we’ve enjoyed nding at least two eggs in the nest every morning. That is until recently. One of the hens has become “broody.” What?

Why can’t the hens be as simple to care for as the roosters were?

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