It’s story telling time.
This afternoon I’ve been invited to hold a chicken workshop for a senior adult education program. Usually when I hold my chicken workshops they come in two parts.
Part 1 – from chick to coop
Part 2 – from coop to death
I’m not sure that this crew is really interested in raising chickens as much as they are interested in hearing about chickens.
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So for 2 hours, it’s going to be story time.
I’ll tell them about how we got our first chicks (how hard can raising chicks be when you’re raising 6 kids?)
I’ll go over the story of baby Simon who found out early that “poop” happens (she would hide under the other chicks and got so covered in poop that she almost died.)
They’ll hear about our wonderful painting chicken who ended up raising $300 for a playground.
And how my daughter was accidentally locked in the henhouse one night (and my husband promised her a pony in contrition as a result.) We’re still sorry about that one sweetheart.
I’ll tell them about Charlie, our little deformed chick on whom I did foot surgery and who then ended up living in our house for 6 months.
They will hear about roosters and how despite everything, you can’t keep them from crowing.
I’ll tell them about zombie eggs, fart eggs, and how to monitor the health of your flock on its eggs.
About how one of our hens got turned into a video game character (I kid you not – check this out)
I’ll let them know that chickens are meat eaters and how one spring when we unearthed a nest of baby mice, they all *somehow* disappeared before I could even call the kids over to see.
I’ll tell them story after story of lessons we have learned from our chicken flock that I’ve seen reflected in our flock of children, like:
- The pecking order – got teen girls? Then you’ve got pecking going on.
- Service to community – your job is to provide, you might as well do it with a song.
- Protector of the flock – someone always stands as the alpha protector. She’s the one who puts herself in front of the bear to protect the others. That’s her job.
- Companionship – there is nothing like a flock of like-minded others to make you feel at home.
- Flying from the nest – when the chicks are old enough and you’ve taught them well, it’s their job to leave the nest and it’s your job to let them.
- Coming home to roost – despite all the squabbles that may have occurred during the day, when the evening comes, the entire roost comes home to roost in solidarity.
So looking forward to this workshop – oh the stories I’ll tell. This is going to be fun.
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even a recipe or two.
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