Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Light a candle for my chicken advent

"Chickens are much easier to take care of than dogs or children," said the chicken guru at the Groton Local meeting. I presume he had brought the delicious deviled eggs to the potluck dinner.

The baby chicks will arrive in about a month. I'm literally nesting. I need to get some books on how to raise them, build a hen house and gather a support network.

I wonder if I need a chicken shower so I can be given all of the accouterments of raising chickens.

It's very exciting to anticipate the animals joining our house. At the least, we'll have delicious fresh eggs to eat and share. Already, it's interesting conversation at gatherings to announce, "I'm adopting chickens in March."

"You'll have to watch out for predators," came one warning.

I will become intimately acquainted with foxes, racoons, fisher cats and other hungry beasts in my pond-side location. It might be interesting to see what and who the chickens attract.

I wonder how my dog Gonzo -- black Labrador-mix -- will react. As a girl, my neighbor Michael Sedgewick got a baby chick for Easter. A dog that visited chased the chicken all over the city backyard until the chicken lost the battle of the survival of the fittest.

Maybe Gonzo will protect the chickens from predators. Right now, Gonzo is trained to come to the kitchen every time she hears me crack an egg. She hopes she'll get an egg yolk.

If I reward her with an egg yolk for protecting the chickens, that could be a motivator. We all have our ulterior motives.

BTW-- I mean Chicken Advent, not Chicken AdventURE. Advent is the time before, the anticipation, the building up before a city slicker adopts chickens.

2 comments:

  1. Gonzo likes yolks, but do you know what she likes more? CHICKEN MEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. Watching Gonzo's reaction to chickens will be very interesting and amusing.

    ReplyDelete