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Now, we are up to the most recent endeavor of the Gordon
family farm--chickens. Last summer, Levi’s friend Jared Haught thought
that since he had game chickens, Levi would also enjoy chickens. As a
result, Danny decided that we needed a chicken coop.
Anyone who is familiar with Danny and me knows that we
do not work well together. Danny was determined to make the Taj Mahal of
chicken coops. He loves carpentry work, but even he admits that he is
not the best. I keep telling him the chickens won’t know if the building
is square or not (it isn’t). After two full weekends of working,
throwing tools, and receiving questions from me, like “Why are you doing
that?”, the coop was complete. The time came for us to fetch the
chickens.
In the chicken coop with Ali, Levi and Henny.
Jared gave Levi a rooster named Ali, as in Muhammad Ali,
and a hen named Henny. The chickens were half Game and half Rhode Island
Red. Throughout this whole ordeal, all Levi and Jared would talk about
(besides wrestling) was chickens. I was so sick of them talking chicken,
it wasn’t even funny.
After the chickens were settled in, we thought it was
time for Ali and Henny to have some friends. We got a few Turkins,
which, to me, look like a vulture from the Bugs Bunny cartoon; a Polish
rooster named Riffle that has feathers on top of his head and feathered
feet (he is my favorite); an old Rhode Island Red named Betty; Freddy
the rooster (we aren’t sure what he is); and two white-faced Spanish
roosters that we named Pedro and Sting.
If you have never seen white-faced Spanish roosters,
they remind me of the clown’s face from the movie “Saw.” It is humorous
to feed the chickens bread and scraps through the fence. They all come
running at you like it is their last meal. I am not as much afraid of
these chickens as I was the pigs. I will get in the coop with Levi, but
when their wings start flapping and they are flying near you, I get
startled and do a little dance and start squalling to get the heck out
the door.
Since we have had the chickens for awhile, Levi’s friend
Logan Moore comes to visit and enjoys the chickens as well. I must say
that Logan is a pretty good chicken chaser. So, Levi decides to give
Logan a few chickens, just as Jared had done for him. Levi gave Logan
the white-faced Spanish rooster named Pedro, a Turkin named Gimpy, and a
hen named Floppy, since its comb hung over.
There is a moral to this story. Jared gave Levi some
chickens--Levi gave Logan some chickens. When a person does something or
gives you something, whether it be a good deed or, yes, even a chicken,
you should “pay it forward.” Life is too short not to share your
experiences with others!
I wanted to introduce you to our brood, since there will
be more to come on individual roosters and hens.
Next Week: Riffle the Rooster.
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