A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
Last week the 7th grade students discovered a chicken on the playground at school. It was much larger than the chicks we had hatched so they knew it was not one of ours. One of the girls brought it to the front office. I wish I could have been there to see their reaction!
Since there was already a coop put together for the chicks, the principal moved it into the courtyard and put the visiting chicken in it.
Eventually, they moved all the chicks in with the bigger hen and everyone seemed happy.
Until feeding time, that is.
Apparently, the larger hen had not been eating well out in the wild and was quite insistent on getting more than her share of the food. Once she realized she would be fed on a regular basis, she calmed down.
No one knows where she belongs. Maybe she heard that our school was a safe place for chickens and decided to join us. We don’t mind.
The little flock has been temporarily moved to a home in the country. The kids are gone for the summer and one of the teachers was concerned the chicks would not be safe without a hundred little eyes watching them.
I assured her that chickens are quite accustomed to being on their own. Nevertheless, there was not a place for them to live all summer at school and no one is sure when the secure chicken pen will be finished.
Being a chicken wrangler, I volunteered to keep the chickens on Miller Farm if they wore out their welcome in their current home.
After all, we will hardly notice 6 more chickens on our farm.
I’m finding it is the same with cattle down here. The cows were visited so often by a neighbor’s bull that finally everyone just gave up, and he lives with me now. My neighbor doesn’t mind. The cows like him, and I have plenty of pasture. He’s as broad and powerful as a John Deere, with horns. but sweet, and non threatening. He likes for me to feed him treats over the fence and scratch his face. I won’t know until next spring if I get to keep him. Obvious reasons. I hope so. I quite like him. Texas laidback attitude is starting to rub off on me. I quite like that too.