This past Sunday (as of this writing), we returned home after the church meeting and saw a small flock of chickens traipsing around our yard. The neighbors said this flock of six had been wandering the neighborhood for a week, but this was the first time we saw them. Having raised chickens in New Mexico, we determined that they are Rhode Island Reds. And this little group is not afraid of people: three of them came right up to me.
They seemed to like our yard -- I suppose because we don't have dogs or cats. They appear to be two hens, three pullets and one cockerel. The two hens flew over the fence and ran down the road, but the other four critters decided they like it here.
Female chickens are a chick for a month after hatching, a pullet for the next eleven months, then called a hen. The exact timing may be argued, but that is generally accepted. The male chick becomes a cockerel at a month, a rooster at twelve months, and can crow at three to four months.
For almost two hours Carol and I discussed the plight of these critters. Knowing the temperature was supposed to drop to a hard freeze for the next couple of nights, and since the birds seem to have placed themselves in our care, I called Tractor Supply here in town to see if they had any chicken coops for sale. I wanted one from which we could easily retrieve eggs. Amazingly, they said one just came in the previous day.
"Put my name on it!" I exclaimed. Then I drove over with my trailer and brought it home. Whoever designed this coop did a great job on it, but aligning the pieces with one hand and turning the screwdriver with the other was awkward.
For those of you who don't know my wife, Carol is not only a wonderful wife, great cook, and loving mother; she is also a worker. Watching me from the window for about ten minutes was enough. She came out the back door and said, "You look like you need help." She was right! She jumped in and helped me assemble the thing. "Thank you, Precious."
Building the coop adjacent to the 8x10 barn was a good idea; for the heat absorbed by the barn during the day, plus the indoor-outdoor carpet that I drape over the coop during the cold weather, kept the water in the coop from freezing.
Monday, the next day, we began collecting "home-grown" eggs. The small size of the eggs confirmed that the birds are pullets. Since pullets are just getting the hang of creating and laying these things, the eggs are small and sometimes "defective." As of today, Saturday, we have retrieved nine edible eggs, with the promise of more to come. (Four of the eggs had soft or rubbery coverings -- not solid enough to be called a shell.)
We didn't ask for these birds, but they sure are fun to have. We put them up each evening; but when they are out in the yard, the pullets come running to me when I go out the back door.
I roamed the neighborhood a mile in each direction to see where they might have come from, but couldn't find their home. If the owner is reading this, please contact me: we will offer to buy them.
If we get to keep them, we will eventually let the girls incubate up to six eggs and increase our flock to ten girls and the boy. I'll have to increase their coop size if we do that.
By the way: the cock does not yell in the morning, afternoon, or evening. He doesn't sound off at all. He merely clucks like the girls do. We'll find out in a month or so if he finds his voice. Another thing: he is blind in one eye. When he first appeared in our yard his comb was bloody and his left eye appears to have been plucked out. As of today, his comb is healed, but the eye is gone forever. This presents a handicap for him because the girls scramble for the food before he even knows it has been thrown out there.
I'll write about these birds periodically. They will be "Lessons From the Flock, For the Flock." Watch for them.
Oh -- I just heard someone crowing out back!
-- Gene Linzey is a speaker, author, mentor and president of the Siloam Springs Writers Guild. Send comments and questions to [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Religion on 02/22/2017