Like many people in America, I have become increasingly aware that this country is going to the birds! For instance, just this past June, the Richmond, Virginia city council voted to allow residents to keep up to four chickens (hens only) in their backyards! What a coop coup! Maggie and Jan have even discussed getting a few hens to complete their back garden. Is it a passing feathered fad or is it in the blood; like a genetic bird flu?
Growing up I always knew that my father’s career goal after graduating high school was to become a poultry farmer. Dad attended Alfred State University for one year and then dropped out. I was told the reason he didn’t continue on he was that he was allergic to chicken feathers. I always assumed that to be the only reason for leaving because in my child’s mind it made sense. I’m certain there were other reasons including the burden of cost of higher education as well as a desire to move ahead with his life. Not long after he left school he enlisted in the Army and joined the working world.
For a time when I was really little, my folks raised chickens in a shed in our backyard. I have little recollection of them except for “dressing” time. Mom says I sat on a little step watching the chickens get their necks wrung, asking if they were “ready to get dressed”. I have a vague mental picture of the experience which believe it or not was a pleasant one and not traumatic in any way. Chickens were food. Dressing them was just part of the deal. As the years passed, and our family grew and both my parents found themselves occupied with various aspects of raising a brood of children, the chicken rearing fell to the wayside, for a while.
Flash forward fifteen or sixteen years. The Farner clan was living in the New Jersey suburbs just outside of Philadelphia on a quarter acre lot; not really where you’d expect to find a chicken coop. Yet, my freshman year in college, Santa brought my youngest brother Mark an incubator and some eggs to hatch. It wasn’t long before we had a pair of Banties and an Easter Hen living in a coop hung on the stockade fence of our backyard.
I learned two things living with these chickens. First, roosters don’t just crow at the break of day; they crow whenever they feel like it. The first time Dave came to meet the family, I warned him that if he heard anything strange, it would probably just be rooster. He laughed and say, “sure” until I took him out back and showed him our feathered friends. I often wondered how our neighbors felt about our rooster, but I don’t recall any complaints.
Secondly I learned that you can easily entertain party guests by hypnotizing a chicken. For fun, Dad would take the Easter hen out of the coop and set her on the lawn. Then, he would hold her head down in the grass with one hand and begin to make lines away from her beak, one after another. After a while he would stop and let go. The hen would stay put for several minutes before shaking all over and walking away. The little kids loved it but I would wager that the roots of this trick lie in getting a chicken to stay still in order to chop off its head without endangering your own fingers.
I’m not sure what happened to those chickens, after all, I was away at school and just a couple of years later my parents moved.
All was quiet on the poultry front until this past April when Barb and I took our road trip to Hiawassee to visit Mom and Dad. One afternoon Barb, Debbie and I decided to take a look at a nearby antique store. There Debbie found a chicken waterer and thought it would make a good birthday gift for Dad who had been talking about getting some chicks. Dad liked the gift but said he didn’t think he wanted to start raising chickens after all. But, the seed was sown; or more properly, the egg was laid.
Just a couple of weeks later, Dad set about up-cycling an old display shelf unit from a local shop into a chicken coop and then populating it with six little pullets he procured from a friend at the town’s feed store. At first the chicks were too little to be outside, for fear of fox and frost so they stayed in the garage in a big cardboard box for a time. Eventually, with the remodel completed, the chicks were moved into their new home just behind the garage.
I asked for updates on the pullets when I had the opportunity to chat with Dad. A couple of times when we were Facetiming, he’d take his I Pad out to the coop so I could see for myself how his girls were doing.
This week, his hens began to lay. First there was one little egg. Then another day there were three. On Friday there were five eggs in the cage! Finally on Saturday, Dad sent us this picture; a full dozen! Not bad progress to go from a maybe to a dozen eggs in four short months.
I have to admit, even I am envious. Fresh eggs at my threshold would be wonderful. I don’t know if my HOA will allow raising chickens in our backyard. I know Izzie would certainly enjoy it!
My brother Scott has also been inspired by Dad’s fowl success. He recently built a new, portable coup that would be perfect for urban poultry farmers. If you are interested in finding out how to get one for yourself, you can contact him at: scott.farner.9@faceb
