Divine by Design

My chickens amuse me.
I have about 30 young 'uns. About half my flock was killed by a dumb dog last winter so I need replacements. They're about a month old and for the first time this week, I started letting them out their coop.
I couldn't quite get the picture I wanted, so you'll have to use your imagination. I left the coop door open and then stood by the gate to see what they would do. At first, a handful of them stood at the door and looked. I would swear I heard their thoughts.
"What is THAT?" "You check it out." "I'm not doin' it. You do it."
There is one young rooster you seemed to take charge of things. He perched on the threshold of the coop. Turned his neck right, then left, the right again. He touched a toe to the dirt and quickly brought his foot back to the familiarity of straw. Then he put one foot down the dirt. The second. He looked around. He checked it out. Then he went back inside the coop. He stepped out again and then he crowed. A weak, scratchy going-through-puberty kind of crow.
It took a while, but eventually the other young chicks stepped out into the dirt. They scratched at the fresh dirt. They explored.

It was like turning a bunch of middle schoolers at a museum. It's not really cool to have fun at a museum at first, but eventually one of the kids will decide it's actually not that bad and then, by the end of the field trip the kids are disappointed to leave.
Nature is a funny thing. It's easy for us humans to forget we're all part of the same animal kingdom. These chickens and us -- we're really not that far apart in the big picture. Be it biology or God's plan, we're each created with a specific plan or job. It's also easy to try to redirect that plan, but sometimes, we're created to be who we are. We can try to change, but nature or God--however you choose to define it --has a plan.
I've been watching our little "wild" chick Uno and her mother. Just like I've always seen in books and on television, at the first sign of danger the little chick snuggles underneath her mother.
She's puffed out to twice her size. Most of my chickens are narrow through the breasts and hind quarters. Mama hen is a round ball right now.
Most women get a little rounder when they give birth and far too many of us panic. Will we ever get that girlish figure back? Then most of us sell our soul to the diet industry to get that figure back. When it doesn't happen, we beat ourselves up for being failures.
I know I have.

But what if those curves are there on purpose. What if Mother Nature or God designed us like that? What if we need those extra pounds for some reason? What if we just stopped worrying about it and allowed ourselves to enjoy the divine design?
I've been working on this lately and I have to say it's entirely freeing. I take care of myself better (it's easier when your hands are not busy with self flagellation )I see the joy in things like a young chick instead of panicking that I haven't worked out enough or eaten the right amount of vegetables.
I don't know if I've lost weight. I don't actually care. I enjoy my life. I feel better. I appreciate all that I am and all the blessings that have been lavished upon me. I'm thankful for every stretch mark and roll because it's allowed me to see the world through different eyes. I can't sit in judgement, like I used to. I have to find compassion for myself and other in ways I did not do before. I'm entirely lucky to be where I am right now and am passionate about living each day to the fullest.
At the risk of sounding like an episode of Oprah, I really feel like it's time for our society to be nicer to each other and most importantly, be kinder to ourselves. We are all beautiful and unique because that's how we were created. To believe otherwise to hold idols above ourselves and that, we all know, is a waste of time.
So now, instead of chasing a perfection that can never be mine, I'll spend time watching my chickens and it's time well spent.

Introducing Uno

Sometimes, I get a wild hair.
In this case, I had a wild...chicken.
I keep about 30 chickens or better each year. I like the fresh eggs and the chickens keep me amused from time to time. You don't need roosters to get eggs. You just need roosters if you want the eggs fertilized. This is a lot like life. Sometimes you just need the men in your life to reproduce, other than that, (although I love my husband) they can kind of be a pain in the ass.
But I digress.
Anywhoo, I have a couple of roosters. If you're looking for a blog writer than can tell you the make and model of every piece of livestock on this farm, you'll have to look else where. I pick my chickens out of a catalog. I choose the ones that look cool and I order them. I get them as day-old chicks and raise them.
I have a black rooster with a funky hair do. He's balding. He tries to make you think he's the boss so when he gets too cocky (ha! chicken humor) I throw water on him or drop kick him. We have a beautiful relationship. I have another rooster. He's beautiful and red. He's very proud but clearly understands that I rule this roost. I have a "zero tolerance" policy for aggressive roosters. Show aggression and you're taco meat. The last rooster that charged one of my kids got his head slammed against the barn wall, tossed in a bucket and hauled up to the dairy barn where my friend "Chewy" took him home for dinner.
Don't f**k with my kids.
Anyway, I had a hen gettin' broody. This is where we get the term "nesting". A broody hen sits in the nest. She puffs up her feathers a little bit and won't leave the nest without prodding. Her biological clock is ticking. So just for kicks and grins, I left 4 eggs in the nest. I marked them with an "X" and didn't collect them when we collected the other eggs every day.
Eggs have a 21 day cycle, so I ignored them for 3 weeks and the hen kept setting. I figured nothing would happen. I have no idea if the roosters have been "gettin' busy".
About 19 days in, there were only 3 eggs in the nest. My daughter and I went through every egg we'd collected that week. No "X". This meant, potentially, that my husband would crack an egg into a frying pan one morning and get -- well, nothing you want to serve with bacon as worse case scenario and hopefully only a 3 week old egg. My daughter and I decided that we'd say nothing and pray one of us opened the potentially fertilized egg. My husband getting a bad egg would be a very bad thing.
Two days later I went down the barn to do the chores. The hen wasn't on the nest and there were no eggs. The hen was on the floor of the coop.
I'm not always very bright and I spent a few minutes looking at this chicken trying to figure out how in the hell she had moved eggs. So I picked up this hen to see if she had those eggs underneath her.
I'll be damned, there was a chick. A cute, yellow chick. Go figure.
Truth be told, I wasn't sure what to do then. Chickens have been having babies for millions of years so I figured the hen could handle this, but should I help her out? I tried to channel my aunts and grandmothers -- those long departed ancestors who raised hundreds of chickens. Based on what I decided was my grandmother's advice, I sectioned off a corner of the coop so the hen and the chick could have their own space away from the other chickens and the roosters in particular. (roosters aren't always the best father figures)
I put some food and water down for them. Mama was very hungry. Then I finally figured out where those other eggs had gone. At least I think this is where they went. That hen didn't leave the nest for the last week. She got hungry. I'm guessing she ate the eggs. I have no idea if that's correct, but animals do what they need to do. I can't explain the missing eggs any other way as there was no sign of a predator getting in the coop.
I know -- EEEEW --- right?!
Anyway, I named the baby Uno and it's the cutest little thing.

Uno has managed to hold her own.(ok it might be a he, but sexing chickens is too hard to bother with)I worried the other chickens would hurt her, but she figured out right away how to get food -- she sneaks between their feet and eat underneath them.
I have to say it was probably one of the cooler things I've seen in the chicken coop. I don't think I'll get in the business of breeding chickens, but it's kind of cool to have a wild chicken around the place.