Chickens

I finished building the chicken pen Tuesday morning. What a task!  It's not much of a pen, but then, I'm not much of a carpenter. I finally got it pretty straight, and the wire all on.  In the end, it doesn't look too bad.

About a month ago, I bought two little Bantam hens from a friend. They came in a small coop about 2' by 3', so I decided to build a yard for them.

I bought a dozen eight foot 2X4s, some one inch mesh chicken wire, and some nails. I kept splitting out the 2X4s, so I bought some self tapping screws. They work much better, and my Makita power driver spins them in nicely. 

Then I ran out of 2X4s, so I bought two dozen more. Then ran out of screws, so had to buy more. I did think that time to get some small ones as well, to attach the roof.  Of course all these purchases involved separate trips to town, about 20 miles away, and mostly in the pickup, which drinks three dollar plus per gallon gasoline at an amazing rate.

I haven't done a lick of work since I quit driving truck, and my hands were sore, but I finished the 8' by 8' pen. It has two 4'X8' sheets of plywood for the roof.  The plywood came from the last election campaign of  a former US Senator from Montana. So now every airplane passing over can see that my chickens are "Friends of Conrad Burns."  While I may not be, my chickens are good Republicans..

I created a place for the little coop to attach to the yard, and pulled the chicken wire off of it, creating a door for them to go in and out. There is a crossbar about halfway up the now open doorway, that now serves as a perch.

The birds were pretty leery about leaving the confines of their pen. They had never been out of it in their lives. I removed their waterer the night before, and that morning, after everything was ready, at about 8:30, I put it in the yard. I scattered some wheat in the yard, and called them, as I always do when I feed them. They were a little hesitant, but stuck their heads out and looked around.

I went back to the house, which is about 20 - 25 feet away, sat on the porch, and watched them. Pretty soon they ventured timidly out into the yard, necks stretched straight up, looking in all directions. They stretched their wings out fully, and headed for the waterer.

After a good drink, and pecking at the food, they discovered that they were not in their little enclosure, and fled back.

After a few minutes, one went out into the yard and began to peck at the seeds. The other hopped up on the crossbar in the doorway, and launched herself out. She spread her wings, flapped mightily, and flew!

It was a beautiful sight. First, the birds who had never had enough room to do so, spread their wings out fully. Then, for the first time in her life, that little Banty hen flew!  It almost brought tears to my eyes.

"Free at last
Free at last
Thank God almighty
I'm free at last."

I like chickens. I like to watch them. They are sentient beings you know.  They have a language, and carry on conversations.  They also sing.  When I was little, our mother raised chickens. Thousands of them. I discovered then that they sing. They sing different songs, and often repeat them. Not only that, they sing in harmony. The songs are often very complex, and sometimes take many minutes to complete. As a musician, I recognized the music they create.

So now,  I feed the chickens and watch and listen to them. It's very pleasant, and the sense of accomplishment in finishing the chicken yard is very satisfying as well.

Agape.
Lee