28
|
SPRING
2015
Whileconstructionprogressedon thecoop,
thechickensweregrowingat anastonishing
rate insidemymudroom.A friend recom-
mended that I shouldn’t name thebirdsas it
wouldmake it harder tokill themwhen the
timecamebut I couldn’t helpmyself and soon
hadnames for themall—Poached, Scram-
bled, Easy,Hard,Meringue,Quiche, Floren-
tineandBenny,myRedRockRooster,who
really stoodout in thecrowd.Huevos
RancherosandSunnywereahandful right
from the start. Theyweregrowingmuch faster
than the rest andwerequick to figureout how
toescape thebrooder. Benny,whowasdes-
tined tobemyprized rooster, didn’t grow
quiteas fast and I soonbecameworried that I
might have to replacehimwithamoremanly
bird.Afterall Iwouldneedhim toprotect the
girls frommy twocats. (That’sa story foran-
otherday.)
As thedayswarmedand thechicksgrew
larger I began taking themoutside intoa
small fencedarea toacclimatize them to their
newhome. Itwasnow time tomake thenest-
ingboxes.With16birds, I figured12boxes
woulddo.Again Iwent to the scrappileand
beganpiecing together thecondounits. I
went foranabstract, contemporary look—the
scrapwoodand lackof planning insured that
my layingboxes lookedmore likean8year
old’s Legoproject. “Lookmom, Imadea
chickencoop”.
Thecoopwas ready for habita-
tionwithnot amoment to spare.
Thechickshad stirredupenough
dust inourmudroom that every-
thingwas covered ina fine layer
of soot.
Thepeckingorderwasquickly
establishedwith theheadhens
taking the top row in thecoop.
HuevosRancherosandSunny
werealwayson topwhileBenny (whowas
nowhalf their size) seemed toget pushed
aroundandwasn’t exactly takingcontrol of
hisharem theway I hadhoped.Huevosand
Sunny’s combswerealsocoming inmuch
quicker than the rest of thegirls, andBenny’s
wasn’t coming inat all. Itwasn’t until I heard
Huevos cockle that I began to suspect some-
thingwasamiss. “Chickensdon’t crow like
roosters…do they?”
Sureenough,my twoprizehens turnedout to
be roostersand theone I thoughtwasmy
rooster,wasactuallyahen. It isamazinghow
yourperceptionof somethingcanchange
basedonwhat sexyou think theyare.My
small,weak,wimpof a roosterwasnowmy
darling, littlehen.Whilemy twoprizehens
werenow thekingsof thecoop. “Was there
one toomany roosters in thehenhouse?”
Obviously,mychickorder hadbeenmixed
up. It turnsout the roosterswereactuallya
breedcalledSussexand from thebreedde-
scription, theSussex seemed like theperfect
backyardbird—friendly, inquisitive, social
andbest of all… somellow, youcanget
awaywithmore thanone rooster in thecoop.
Perfect.
Bymid summerwe still hadall 16birdswhich
isalmost unheardof, butwe tookcareof our
little flockdiligently—cleaning theirwaterdish
daily, changing the shavings in thebrooder
oftenandevenwiping their tinybumswith
moist paper towelwhen theygot sticky.
Eventually the timecame that everyparent
must face. Thechickswere ready toventure
into theyardby themselves.Myplan from the
start hadbeen to let themgo“free range”
around theproperty.Chickenswon’t stray
farandwill naturally return to their coopat
nightfall.
☛
MAKEOVERFEATURE |
FROM OUTHOUSE TO HENHOUSE
