"As they passed the rows of houses they saw through the open doors that men were sweeping and dusting and washing dishes, while the women sat around in groups, gossiping and laughing.
"What has happened?" the Scarecrow asked a sad-looking man with a bushy beard, who wore an apron and was wheeling a baby-carriage along the sidewalk.
"Why, we've had a revolution, your Majesty -- as you ought to know very well," replied the man; "and since you went away the women have been running things to suit themselves. I'm glad you have decided to come back and restore order, for doing housework and minding the children is wearing out the strength of every man in the Emerald City."
"Hm!" said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully. "If it is such hard work as you say, how did the women manage it so easily?"
"I really do not know," replied the man, with a deep sigh. "Perhaps the women are made of cast-iron.""
- L. Frank Baum, "The Land of Oz"
Saturday, September 26, 2009
About five months ago my wife and I bought a home on a 2 acre plot of land out in the country. We're so far out in the sticks that we can't even get standard Internet access out here; we have to pay an arm and a leg for satellite service because our other option, dial up, is so ridiculously slow it's not even worth our time. Anyway, since moving out here we have affectionately labeled our home The Farm and we've got a small flock of chickens, and an even smaller flock of ducks. Hey, it's a start!
It's funny how so many truisms, axioms, and colloquialisms come from farm life -- and often times we don't even realize it. Let's take chickens for example. First off, they're chicken. In other words, they run away from you at the drop of a hat, they're easily spooked, and they're never walking in victory from fear. They're scaredy-cats. :-) All of sudden, being a chicken farmer makes me realize what it truly means to call someone a chicken.
Roosters, sometimes, can be the exception to the rule. A normal rooster can often be in-your-face, fearless (to an extent), and very capricious. Roosters are often called cocks, and it's easy to see where the term "cocky" comes from. Roosters are straight up cocky. I've gotten into more than a few fights with my rooster. One of these days I'll kill him and eat him ... we'll see how cocky he is on that fateful day.
Another thing is chickens are incredibly stupid. My wife thinks they're no smarter than bugs, and I think she's right. They don't "learn" like other animals. If you spray them with the water hose to keep them away from a certain area of the yard, they'll walk right back to that same area 10 seconds later. They have no retention.
On the positive side of things, if they're allowed to free-range around your property, they do a good job of keeping pests like ticks and other bugs to a minimum. The biggest benefit, of course, is the eggs they lay. We have nine hens and they're giving us about six eggs a day right now, and the eggs are much more yummy than the supermarket variety.
That's all I've got on chickens right now. Here's a photo of our flock:
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Comments on "What I'm Learning From Chickens":
3. Bird
- 09/26/2009 5:28 pm CDT
Maybe you can get there sooner than 5 yrs, since you can't be loosing as much time with 'net (and TV?) now....
Yeah we haven't had the TV hooked up to anything yet. When we lived in town, we piped in the basic free channels, but we've been essentially now five months without TV. It's been nice. I do have a big satellite on the side of the house, and I've got all the necessary hardware to hook it up; it's just a matter of taking the time to run the coaxial cable into our house and then running it through a digital receiver box.
Thanks for the book recommendation.
4. salguod
- 09/26/2009 6:45 pm CDT
I have a buddy that lives in the middle of nowhere in SE Wisconsin. About 60 MI north of the IL border and 12 MI from the Mississippi. (Ironically, although everyone on the planet but about 6 people are long distance calls, he can get DSL. Weird.) He's had chickens almost as long as I've known him and they are incredibly stupid. They'll also eat anything, he throws all his table scraps over the fence to them. Yes, they'll even eat leftover chicken.
7. Shrode
- 09/28/2009 11:03 am CDT
In my mind, the best evidence for the dumbness of chickens is "Mike, The Headless Chicken".
If you can live without a head, you are pretty dumb.
And yes, Mike was a real chicken who lived without a head, and toured the country to prove it. True Story. Look it up.
8. Shrode
- 09/28/2009 11:09 am CDT
A documentary video of Mike the headless chicken
Mike was famous. The children even had a playground chant,
"Mike, Mike, where's your head? Even without it, you're not dead!
11. Sam in Mesquite
- 09/29/2009 7:48 pm CDT
oh...But I have heard of a chicken ranch. Must have been in some other context.
Anyway, do your chickens have a coop or do they just lay their eggs on the grass? Reason I ask is because we had been getting one egg almost daily from one chicken (the others must be too young). She was just laying it in the grass, but then I cut that grass and she hasn't laid an egg in a month. These chickens are under a trampoline and kept there with a sad looking fence of, well, chicken wire.
12. Bird
- 09/29/2009 10:52 pm CDT
They have a coop, but they lay their eggs primarily in the nesting boxes that are inside the coop. They only spend a portion of the day in the coop. They spend a few hours a day outside ranging around. In those instances, they typically still go back to the coop to their nesting boxes to lay.
Do you know how old your other chickens are?
Chickens don't need much in the way of extensive care, but they do perform much better if given a place to roost and nesting boxes in which to lay eggs.
13. Sam in Mesquite
- 09/29/2009 11:49 pm CDT
I am really not sure but I would guess the one that was laying is maybe 6-8 months old. Yours are larger than she is by a little bit. The younger two must be only 4-5 months old. There is a older red one, but she seems to be asleep all the time. Probably PTSD after a bad experience with the neighbors lab. We have a man building a coop or hen house of some type. We aren't in a big hurry for eggs but just want them to be happy.
15. ToilingAnt
- 10/06/2009 12:10 pm CDT
Next time get smarter chickens. Seriously. Choose another breed-- something easy-going and more intelligent, like Buff Orpingtons (my personal favorite).
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"One of these days I'll kill him and eat him ... we'll see how cocky he is on that fateful day. "
Birds like him are why the French invented coq au vin.