Opinion : With a cluck, cluck here, and cluck, cluck there

One of our favorite shows is America's got talent.  Usually it's not for the talent in the beginning of course, but because of the lack of it.

However, a few years ago we found ourselves rooting for a chicken catcher. Kevin Skinner, was one of those guys you saw walk up to the microphone and you just knew that when he opened his mouth and drawled that he was a chicken catcher, well, we just knew it wasn't going to be good.

He of course, surprised us and we became a fan of his.

Now that we have our chickens, 15 of them, we find that we drawl often that we are chicken farmers, although we have no idea what we are doing.

If I'm correct, it looks like 3 of our chickens from the Easter egg hunt at Roger's Park, are roosters.

I'm not thrilled about that. Not that I'm discriminatory, but we simply wanted eggs...but it looks like we will have some fresh chicken at some point.

Waaaay back in the day, Dean and I went to a college that had everyone pitching in doing chores as part of our campus duties. Occassionally, someone would donate a semi load of chickens to the school.

Not the ready to eat kind, but the kind that were ready to have their head chopped off, plucked, gutted and THEN placed in the ice box.

I had to chop at least one head off, so that 30 years later I can tell my kids that, "Yes, I chopped the head off a chicken once."

A friend of ours contributed to our chicken adventure with the donation of a shed that his dad built probably 50 years ago. 

Later he brought his mom and dad out to see the new home for this old shed. 

It was fun to talk to the older, much wiser couple.

She told us about how she raised her first chickens in an old Model A because they didn't have a shed at the time.

Then she told about how she had some unexpected guests coming over for supper, so she went out and grabbed a chicken. She placed its head in between two nails shaped in a V and tried to chop its head off, unfortunately she missed and just nicked its beak.  She gave a little laugh and said, "The poor thing had to go through it twice!"

That's the joy of entering this farming/country life.  The people you meet with experiences that reflect a time when Iowa was mostly a rural state.

A time when talking about missing with the first swing of an axe to take the head off a chicken, wouldn't alert PETA or make most people cringe but get a good laugh at farm life.

We hear that we are in for a good time when the hens start to lay their eggs.

A friend of ours said, "It's like a group of ladies headed to the restroom. They all line up and sit there until they lay their eggs."

Another benefit is simple bug control. THAT I will be glad for.

While our girls haven't laid an egg yet, we are sure that any day now we'll be in the egg business, and understand better the idea of egg money...at least that's what our 12 year old is hoping for.