Do you choose the chicken life? Or does it choose you?
I don't quite know the official answer to that, but I know it chose me and I chose it for someone else.
My mom used to love coming to my house to see the chickens. She talked about them all the time and loved to go to the pens and watch them.
So for her birthday a few years back, I decided to make her a chicken owner. I saved up my money and bought a new chicken coop with the Black Friday deals. I got a waterer, a feeder, and a coop. But nowhere seemed to be selling chicks at the time so I went home and the farmer and I sat analyzing our own coops. We chose the chickens who needed a slower-paced environment. The` ones healing from trauma, the ones rescued from chicken fighters, and the ones who were just a bit shyer. Because, let's be honest, almost seventy chickens like what we had, is not a slow-paced and peaceful environment. Thankfully we have downsized to a comfortable amount.
We secretly asked my stepdad if it was okay for us to get that for her and he said it was fine and honestly, I think he was kind of excited about it. But don't tell him I said that! LOL! Then we told Nanny.
My grandmother, "Nanny" fussed at me,
"Your mama don't have no time for chickens!"
"Chickens stink!"
"The roosters will crow all night long!"
and my favorite, "How will you get eggs without a rooster?"
The excuses were endless, I think her family had them when she was little and from how much of a fight she put up, I'm assuming she wasn't a fan of them. LOL!
So the day finally came, we prepared the coop and chickens and headed to Nashville. The coop was in the back of the truck and was full of chickens.
Mama came around thinking she was getting a chicken coop and only a chicken coop. But then she saw her new chickens inside and she shouted, "Chickens! There are chickens in it!"
*Insert giggle* "Yep."
So ever since that day, she has been growing her chicken empire. Getting more from Tractor Supply, she ended up with a few gorgeous roosters who fathered even more gorgeous babies, and they just keep multiplying! She treats them like kings and queens more than I do mine, names them all, buys them treats and hand-feeds them mealworms. It's amazing to watch her interact with them.
They're all so happy there at her house. they have so much space to roam and it's far from any roads. They have little forest gardens throughout the yard, as a kid, I called them the "gardens of no hope". They're fun to explore though, even as an "adult", am I considered an adult yet? I have the right amount of back pains.
But the other day while we were there we watched them all go into the gardens and scratch around exploring for bugs, and then they'd come out of the gardens and roam around the yard some then hed to the hedges, & dig around some more. She found a beetle at one point and threw it down for them, it didn't take long for someone to notice.
Buddy, Chirp, & Frizz, those are a few of their names I can think of off the top of my head.
At one point in the day she wanted to get a photo of her reading to Chirp, Chirp was not in the least bit enthused but she went along with us with the thoughts of good behavior treats in the back of her mind.
Mama held Chirp and showed Chirp my book, "The Daily Musings of a Farm Wife" and it quite honestly looked like Chirp was looking at the book and reading along with her.
We had so much fun during this little "Chicken Photoshoot". My mom has turned into the best chicken tender there is! LOL Did you catch that? Anyway, Happy Early Birthday Mama!
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