COOPED up...but not for long.

COOPED UP in the Valley … The phrase ‘being cooped up’ has new meaning when you have your very own coop and see its dimensions. Ours is nothing fancy maybe 6’x 8’ with a couple nesting boxes, perch shelves and floor space for feed and water containers and some scratching room if you are a chicken occupant. Did you realize that we didn’t need to install a garbage disposal in the new house as all food scraps except for bones are ‘chicken’ garbage?

YUMMY – the girls even get free trade coffee grinds so we have hyper - socially conscious caffeinated chickens. LOL. Anyhow attached to the coop is a fenced-in chicken yard to keep the dog at bay. Growing on the fencing is a type of lantern clematis that adds shading. One summer this vine was getting too heavy for the fencing so Irv decided the best way to get rid of it was to burn it. Only he didn't tell me in on his plan. I'm standing at the kitchen window and I see smoke and then fire shooting up by the coop. I start yelling hysterically and join the chickens in their frantic squawking. Well, let me tell you those girls 'flew the coop' as soon as they could, beelining it into the woods with Romeo in pursuit as he thought this was a game of 'Chase.' Natureman's dousing the flames and I'm running after the dog and yelling after him to leave the chickens alone. I hear lots of commotion in the woods and Romeo prances out proudly with a chicken in his mouth and I'm screaming at the top of my lungs to drop it. Much to my surprise, he does. But now I am like how will we ever gather all the chickens to get them back in the coop? City Girl lesson #499 as Natureman who has put out the fire by this time informs me- Don't worry when it gets darker, they will come back to the coop to roost. AND sure enough they were all back in the coop by nightfall. WOW. At the end of each growing season the chickens have free reign in the vegetable garden to help eat up all the remains. Remember those cute little chicks pre- feathers?

Well, honey they ‘done got big ‘and went from perching on a dowel less than a foot off the ground to the big girl shelf about 6ft off the ground where I found them all for photo time. By fall they will probably be laying eggs. People ask all the time about where the roosters are. BUT You do realize that you don’t need roosters to have eggs. 
Think about it AND We don’t want fertilized eggs anyway. I don’t remember who all I have spoken with about chickens but there are 2 kinds - layers and meat chickens . We have 'layers' for the eggs as I went through butchering once and once was enough… For those that haven’t heard that story, it is certainly worth retelling as ‘city mouse ‘ me sees how that chicken gets to your dinner plate. Natureman was in charge of a quick ax decapitation after which he tied and hung them upside down to let the blood drain. Sorry no pics. Well, one of them fell to the ground and started running around with the dog in pursuit. Can you picture a dog chasing a headless chicken? Giving new understanding to the phrase “running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” I can't believe I am reprimanding the dog for chasing a chicken whose life is already over. BUT Next came 'my' task which was to dip the chicken into a large pot of boiling water in order for me to de-feather, ok, pluck the chickens. The smell was HORRIFIC in addition to the fact the wet feathers stick to you. Since that day I have a tough time seeing a ‘whole’ raw chicken … so we don’t get 'meat' chickens and I don't even want to butcher the layers for soup. When the layers get too old, I give them away.
 Well we just finished a week of not being able to drive after the accident and I can honestly tell you that it sure is good not to be ‘COOPED’ up even if it’s in the End of the Rainbow Valley…