Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Chicken With Attitude

We ate a turkey last night for dinner. So I made some stock from the neck, liver, etc... you know... the "giblets".

Made some mashed potatoes, a little "box stuffing" and some veggies.
This kind of dinner should require company. It's a lot of work, but the Prospector had this frozen turkey and wanted to eat it. We called our neighbor to come for dinner but he couldn't make it... so we had a big turkey dinner all by ourselves. We will have Turkey for quite a few nights and more. Soup maybe... sandwiches... etc. We will not waste any of it.
Yesterday the wind blew, the rain came and it was cold... really cold. Today the sun shines again.
The Prospector is still hurting from his encounter with a tree branch and a retaining wall so I'm on duty for much of the farm feeding.

This morning I considered having CHICKEN for dinner tonight instead of turkey.
I walked up to the chicken house.

 Gave them the potato peels and some old tomatoes.  I noticed that two of the hens were missing. I change the outside water and went into the hen house to look for the hens. The first thing I saw was one of the big hens in one of the small nests.
All squished in there like she thought she was a banty. She never gets up in these small boxes.
The big community nest only had one hen inside of it.
ONE HEN... It wasn't like the big box was crowded or anything.
The hen stuffed into the little box might have been having a bad day, so maybe she decided to do her thing in the little box... alone. We all have days like this.
I understood. But I wanted a picture.
I ran for the camera (of course) and came back in to take her portrait. I would have named it HEN IN DENIAL or something.
That's when all hell broke loose.
She obviously didn't want her picture taken while she was laying an egg.
She turned and started making a god awful noise.
And then she stuck her head out of the box and..."Whoa, chicken mama, back away from the human."

She was not a happy hen.
I actually took this photo from half way across the hen house and cropped it.
I wasn't about to get close to her. She was, as the old saying goes, "mad as a wet hen".
(Now I know what that expression means.)
She came at me like a hen with PMS. and was making a high pitched, nasty sound.
I just wanted a picture of her in that little box... but you would have thought I wanted her for dinner. As I was backing away from her, I looked over and saw Squeakie.

 She was watching all of this. I think she was placing bets on the outcome.... or, she was too afraid to leave.
Napoleon, the rooster, and the other hens were not getting anywhere near the doorway but they were listening to the commotion.
I backed out of the hen house and left.
As I walked down to the driveway, Annibel greeted me.
She had that wise, "Well, what's going on" look. The cat expression that says,
 "Did you kill one for me? I like the little ones best."

We walked back to the house.
I'm trying to be more chicken friendly around here but....
That chicken better lay an egg today.
She is a marked hen.

8 comments:

  1. maybe I don't want chickens again.... I've been thinking, I eat omelets for dinner and a lot of salads with boiled eggs that I would get some chickens, dogs could have scrambled eggs from ones I don't eat. But I keep thinking about the last chickens I had and why I got rid of them, and then everyone in blog land has chickens .... and reading blogs, maybe I will just continue to bring them home in the white stryrofoam cartons.

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  2. if a dinner like that requires a guest...i guess i could help you out...haha....and yeah i might have been tempted to have chicken as well...omg

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  3. Uhhh, how much do you like that hen?? I find that if I verbalize my displeasure with the hens, and how they are treading on thin ice, somehow more eggs appear very soon. Sounds like that better happen with your PMS hen. Maybe she was having a bad hair day, and things will turn around tomorrow, but if I were her, I'd sleep with one eye open.
    ~~Lori

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  4. SEE? SEE! Nobody ever believes me when I say chickens attack. I am an animal lover and, as a rule, animals love me. But not chickens (actually, fowl in general). The few times in my life when I’ve gone anywhere near a chicken, it starts screaming at me (some call it squawking) then it flies at me. I know it’s trying to peck my eyes out. Remember “The Birds”? Maybe it's time to get one of those signs to post, "Caution---Attack Chicken" ~Dawn

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  5. Sounds like my encounters with the late rooster, Napolean Einstein (my grandson named him). He was mean as a snake and one day pushed a little too far. Chickens are really funny to watch with one another...there are definitely some with attitude!

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  6. For shame.....Miss Chicken Licken needs to learn that you don't peck the hand that feeds you. Do you think maybe she is in need of some serious counseling. There has to be a chicken whisperer out there somewhere. Your turkey dinner sounded quite nice. I love those meals that you can be creative with and stretch several meals out of.

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  7. who says that chickens aren't real characters!! They're not just birds!

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  8. My friend Gale has chickens that lay beautiful green, turquoise & brown eggs but hers are super friendly she can pick them up for a cuddle!
    I like what Lori said that hen better sleep with one eye open or she will be Coq Au Vin!

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