[Sca-cooks] Chicken question

[Jane Boyko]

Okay, I am enjoying these posts as well.  I agree with Maire - the 
ammonia can make your eyes water.  Being Cdn the coop didn't get as 
clean as I would have preferred in the winter but come the first decent 
weather in the spring the coop got cleaned out entirely.  In the summer 
they were cleaned out on a regular basis.  btw one year old manure from 
chickens makes great garden fertilizer.  Terrific for greenery.  We had 
fabulous potatoe plants.

I raised hens and sold their eggs (never got an allowance).  I had a 
flock of 50 and they were very entertaining.  btw herding chickens is 
like herding cats.  My chickens escaped on a regular basis.  When the 
wind was just right it would hit the pen door and the latch would 
release.  I would then have to heard 35 chickens back inside.  I guess 
my best memories of them are people's reactions.  People were very 
frightened of them.  One guy drove up in a VW Rabbit and wouldn't get 
out his car.  One chicken strolled up and took on look at the driver's 
door with open window and thought it would be a great place to roost.  
Luckily I was able to see the squat and bob signs for what they were - 
an introduction to taking off - and rescued the poor man from the 
chicken without him realizing what almost happened. 

Other people were amazed that chickens could dig holes.  We had big dust 
bathing holes dug by the chickens.

I also trained a couple to ride around on my shoulders but that stopped 
the day one decided that my eye was edible.  The only thing is that 
chickens are comparable to goats.  I don't know if this is true for 
geese and ducks but my word - chickens eat everything.  I don't know how 
many toads I had to rescue and I never, ever, gave thought to the ones I 
didn't know about - still gives me the colly wobbles.  The one snake got 
lucky or rather I did since it escaped the pen without a mark and I 
didn't have to rescue it.  Yikes - snake terror for me.  They also loved 
shoelaces, cigarette butts, kleenix.  Not that we fed them these things 
but they did their best.

I have some wonderful memories of my chickens (an I can do really good 
imitations) and loads of stories.

Marina (like Maire - former farm girl)