chickens

Shannon's enthusiasm for chicken's is so fascinating to me and tickles me so when she gets excited over them. and brings back alot of memories for me growing up as a child I swear I felt like elly mae clapmpit growing up with all the "critters" we had growing up. my first non domestic pet my favorite uncle brought home to me was a skunk i couldn't of been more then 3 and of course I named it pepe la pue lol come on I was like 3 I would wag that skunk around every where or tried to. it let me know real fast when i was agitating it fyi tomato juice really does not take the smell away lmao! it only cuts the full aroma down some. we had horses I got my first horse again when I was 3 learned how to ride without a saddle and how to hold onto the mane daddy taught me how to ride well only he left out how to duck and me being 3 of course who would of thought i would run under the clothes line and get hung and uprooted out of my seat and swing back and fourth from my neck while my mother watched helplessly out the kitchen window lmao. and of course years later throwed and landed back first across the railroad tracks ouch. dumped out of my buggy and dragged. saddle loosed and rode upside down for a little while until i hit the ground. grabbed up and bitten on the shoulder and thrown across the pasture by one horse i tried to hide that bite mark i wasn't supposed to be around the horse it belong to someone else and they didn't know its temperment but let me tell you he was very unsociable but soooo pretty i just wanted to pet the horsey! kicked in the stomach by colts hoof prints left indented in my skin they really will knock the wind out of you lol. we had goats at one time omg do they stink and the grown males are just evil looking to me they creep me out badly! racoon's mean little devils crafty though but not suited to be kept as pets. wild baby rabbits which by the way you can not keep a wild rabbit alive no matter how hard you try its just not meant to be, domestic rabbits yes wild no... a fawn that grew fast into a young deer until the neighbor shot it thinking he was going to get some deer meat that was heart breaking. two baby gray cat squirrels that didn't have their little eyes open yet I had to bottle feed them. then they discovered the outside and wanted to be free I named them chip and dale we put there cage in the huge pecan tree in the back yard and they left never to return again i cried over those squirrels... we had ducks and geese and chickens ...chickens and I discovered I enjoyed chickens very much i liked feeding them. then collecting the eggs we had all kinds of chickens. daddy even got an incubator and we would hatch the chickens I learned how to rotate the eggs and date them when we set them in there and gave an expected due date lol... and I would take care of them with such motherly love lol. and get so exited when i would hear them peep in the shell and then start to break free! I would watch with such excitement I learned how to tell the hens from the roosters right when they came out of the shell. I had one a rooster that became my pet I loved that rooster he was soo pretty black speckled with the yellow neck he grew to be so big I would walk out in the yard and he follow me everywhere and sleep with me in the lawn chair outside it was so funny i would be all sprawled out sleeping and the rooster would be on my stomach laying down on its side sleeping to. I can't remember what happened to that rooster. Then there was the banny golden seabright rooster omg he was soo pretty and he would play chase so i thought he was just a mean little rooster! i would chase him and then turn and run and he would chase me back and one day he caught me and spurred me in the back of my head I still to this day have a spot in the back of my head where the hair will part from where he cut me. we also had a beautiful Rhode Island red and of course his name was foghorn leghorn lol yeah i watched alot of looney tunes growing up... he would let me carry him around craddling him in my arms until on day he looked up at me turned his head to one side and bit the septum in my nose into whiched pissed me off and i grabbed him around his neck until his eyes bugged out then i let him go before i killed him blood every where that really hurt......
then we had to gather the eggs in the coop this is the part i really hated I would have to go and check on the hens that were setting and my god they would peck and hurt me.....one day i go to reach and grab an egg and I come out with a chicken snake you talk about someone shitting a squeely worm !! I threw it down and vowed never to go back in the hen house again but of course I had to or get my butt whooped.....I hated the hen house it smells chicken mites rats snakes. I go to walk in again one day to get eggs I made it pasted the door i am checking and something catches my attention out the corner of my eye ..its huge snake crawling up the wall the of the doorway its as long as the doorway to and I am thinking to myself how did i miss that when i walked in and omg that is the only exit and entrance before i knew it i was outside of the hen house how i don't know but panic and adrenalin played a key role in that flight and it was a flight i didn't even feel the ground under my feet as i was in the house before i knew it screaming at mom. the neighbor came over grabbed the snake by the tail and popped his head off with one sharp fast whip of his hand that was gross but i was glad the snake was gone!!!...*shudders*
then when I was 15 my dad got it in his head because my cousin julie dawn had alot of chickens and she sold eggs during the summer that it would be a good summer job for me as well so let me tell you what he does.....

daddy finds 80 laying hens and a few roosters the huge black and white speckled chicken i mean they are just fat chickens!...ok I was enthusiastic I can do this I do this everyday anyway what is the harm right? right???.... I feed the chickens take care of the chickens dode on the chickens i gather eggs I sell eggs I make enough money to buy my first 100lb bag of feed for these chickens which back then I think it was around 13 or 15 dollars i really can't remember.. so I have my first income and they paid for their feed with it..the weather changes it is the hottest summer of my entire life {for back then} and these chickens up and stopped laying eggs so i am stuck with 80+ chickens that will not lay eggs..no product no income no money for their feed. doesn't that just suck lol... well few months later we move to the back of the pasture built a little coop for the chickens and one of daddy's hunting dogs got loose one day while we are gone and i have 80+ chicken parts feathers and everything laying all over a half acre lot in the heat waiting on us when we return and a happy give out sleeping well feed hunting dog laying in the yard with the evidence all over him. and I have to pick it all up and put it in sacks so they can take it to the fox pens that was disgusting and nasty smelly and just awful and vowed never ever to have chickens again!! and I haven't and I won't. I can't stand to hear a rooster crowing in the morning sunrise it unnerves me to know end. and mom just had to find an alarm clock that crows grrr... other people's chickens how ever do not bother me infact i can feed them and call them and watch them and i am content but the thought of me my self ever owning another chicken is out of the question......so shannon now you know why your enthusiasm tickles me brings back memories of childhood and why i really don't care for chickens that much any more lol yep its another long winded post sorry =)