Sep 24
Chickens
Chickens are as close to the perfect animal that I think there is. It is good to eat, lays wonderful eggs, eats weeds, bugs and kitchen scraps, and produces excellent manure. Everybody should have chickens. But there is a huge social stereotype working against chickens. Even out here in the country the newer neighborhoods permit dogs, cats and horses but prohibit chickens. Maybe that is a carryover from the depiction of poverty-stricken folks back in the 1930’s who lived in shacks but always had chickens. Instead of being stigmatized for this association the chicken should be honored…it was virtually the only animal these destitute people could manage to keep, and it helped to sustain them through some pretty hard times.
We started keeping chickens back in Fairfax City in the 1960’s. I’m sure there was an Ordinance against this, but we didn’t ask and no one ever complained for the 25 years that we lived there. We did not have a rooster, though, since not everyone in the area wanted to be awakened at dawn.
At the moment we have 15 hens here at the farm, and no roosters. I keep the hens in until mid-afternoon so they will lay their eggs in the nesting boxes. I let them out to roam around later, and they love to eat the green weeds, bugs, and sometimes the plants growing in the garden. But the damage is slight, and it is such fun to watch them feasting and running free. Late in the evening all the hens come back to the coop and jump up onto their roosts for the night, and I close the door behind them. The number of hens tends to vary since Mr. Fox and Mr. Raccoon occasionally take one home for dinner.
We need a rooster to complete the menagerie. The hens can get along perfectly well without him, and he eats a lot and produces nothing, but he is still great to have around. Each rooster has his own particular crowing music, and it is fun to hear our rooster shouting out and then listening for responses from other roosters in the neighborhood. He also crows when the hens are threatened…that sound from the chicken coop in the middle of the night is bad news. It is when the chickens are out on the grounds that the rooster best shows his repertoire of skills. He scouts for food, and when he finds something good he will cluck in a certain way and any hens nearby will come to the feast. He steps out of the way and lets the hens eat first. Once in a while he will use that call to attract a hen when his purpose is romantic, but the hens don’t seem to mind. In the evening when it is time to go back to the coop the rooster will not go to sleep until all the hens are in. He will go in and out looking for his girls, and also clucks to them in a certain way and eventually all assemble in safety. I will get a new rooster soon.
So, dear reader, throw off the yoke of conformity to old stereotypes and get yourself at least two hens. You will like them and your kids will love them. If you recycle you will have two living recyclers living right in your yard. Their eggs will be rich and tasty, and if the wolf ever shows up at your door you can eat them.
