{"id":638,"date":"2010-09-21T16:32:20","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T20:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/?p=638"},"modified":"2010-09-21T16:32:20","modified_gmt":"2010-09-21T20:32:20","slug":"the-chicken-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/the-chicken-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chicken Dance."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My husband says we are getting a goat.\u00a0 Goats are good.\u00a0 Which of course means, I am getting a goat, because it will be me tending to the goat of things.<\/p>\n

We are not getting a goat.<\/p>\n

However, back in the beginning of summer, our neighbor built a coop and loaded it up with 25 Rhode Island Reds.\u00a0 25 chickens.\u00a0 Free\u00a0ranging at that.\u00a0 And then there were\u00a014.\u00a0 Something about raccoons and coyotes.\u00a0 I did not want to know the details.<\/p>\n

They are a funny brood- these chickens.\u00a0 Not a rooster in sight.\u00a0 Just a brood of hens, scratching and pecking in their world of free range. Bugs make the eggs sweeter, so they say.\u00a0 Ticks too.\u00a0 Again, I did not want to know the details.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the hens have come to call our yard their range. And in particular, 4 hens have developed quite the hen crush on my husband.\u00a0 There he will be, working on the barn or stacking wood- doing farm things here and there, and following close behind, the reddettes chuckle and coo.\u00a0In fact, one little hen laid a dozen eggs in\u00a0one of his\u00a0old concrete cylinders-covered now in Joe Pye weed and golden rod.\u00a0\u00a0She laid her eggs and then\u00a0proceeded to\u00a0sit on them as if she was expecting.\u00a0 No rooster, remember?\u00a0 But there she sat, for days upon days.\u00a0 Only gazing up from her cylinder to coo at my husband. \u00a0Great, now we have chickens in the yard.\u00a0 Our dog is visibly upset.\u00a0 He is not pleased to see the girls meandering here and there in search of- well, bugs and ticks- or whatever else they find on their newly expanded range. Since our dog is a “farm dog” my husband thought it would be a good idea, and a way to solve the incessant chicken barking, if dog met hen.\u00a0 So, last Sunday, he opened the gate, thinking he was Mr. Green Jeans, I suppose and took dog by the collar to introduce him to hen.\u00a0 Certainly, my husband thought, instinct would play out and dog and hen( or brood of) would become fast farm friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Um, no.<\/p>\n

Not even close.<\/p>\n

Luckily, the meet and greet did not turn out as I know some of you were thinking.\u00a0 Hen, upon seeing close proximity of dog, did her best to fly and my husband did his best to intervene.\u00a0 There are still 14 chickens.\u00a0 They still roam and the dog still barks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have given in and now serve the reddettes a daily helping of cracked corn( at least I won’t have visions of tick and bug parts when I scramble up an\u00a0egg or two)\u00a0at about the\u00a0same time\u00a0I give out sunflower seeds to Mr. Chipmunk-who literally waits for his supply on the tallest rock in\u00a0our flower garden.\u00a0 I fear if I am late my zinnias will suffer the consequences.<\/p>\n

Not quite Green Acres-not quite the Upper West Side-but it is home.<\/p>\n

<\/div>