Thursday, June 12, 2008

City Chickens Part II

Speaking of chickens . . . they are trouble. Also, as a side note, my friend pointed out on my last city chicken post that these are really not "city chickens” at all – possibly suburban chickens. Anyway, my brother-in-law Troy has a weekly post entitled “Corn Grows” that documents (as you might have guessed) how his corn is growing. Look there to see how early corn ought to look. Look here to see how early corn should not look. Perhaps I will title this “Corn Tries to Grow.” It tries alright, but our chickens peck it to bits. I didn’t know chickens ate greens! I thought they ate bugs and grain and people food (if you are not careful when snacking outside). But, it turns out they are ruthless with our little greens. Corn seems to be their favorite, but they have destroyed a zucchini plant, ate every one of the 3 zillion sunflower seeds I planted along our back hill, and are moving on to our tomatoes and peas now that the corn has served its usefulness. Look at them – caught red handed and trying to pretend like they know nothing! I was so excited to have corn and pumpkins in my backyard this fall (even though I won’t be here). It wasn’t even that I wanted to eat it that badly – I mean, I did, corn is delicious – but I just love autumn and cornstalks and pumpkins and fall leaves and I was so excited to have some of these things right in my yard! Bad bad chickens. I think perhaps that they are, as of yet, unaware of the delicate thread that a chicken’s life dangles by. If they knew, I wonder how my corn would look.

On an unrelated note, Abe tried (unsuccessfully) to teach Penny how to “play dead” the other day. Then, this morning, he was very excited to show me that he had taught her a new trick – how to sit when commanded. Something seems not quite right about this.

12 comments:

BS and the Kids said...

Your poor garden, pecked to death. I have heard a few hints dropped that you are going somewhere, but I don't think I read it anywhere, am I missing something??? Pavlov's response is such a wonderful thing. I am sure Penny is trained quite well on a number of things based on the reaction she must rise from the others.

Nancy said...

Oh yes, I've forgotten to tell so many people because of my other news (pregnant) and all the busyness here, but yah, we are moving back home! End of August Mike will be transferred! Maybe I will actually see my two Sarah's again!! Yeah!

jami v. said...

oh i'm so sorry about the chickens pecking and eating your garden. little stinkers! maybe you'll move to a house that has an abundance of pumpkins ready and waiting for you in the backyard. :)

(ok. i LOVE that abe is teaching miss penny tricks - that's pretty hilarious. :) )

Lover of Sweets said...

Oh those chickens have some nerve! Have you tried eating chicken nuggets in front of them or even like a fried drumstick? That would shake me to my little wishbone (if I had one)! Really though, I just feel strongly that you need to show these darn chickens who is boss (that's you). I would think about maybe lining their chicken coop (if they indeed have such a thing) with empty bags of chicken breasts or tenderloins and then dangling boxes of chicken nuggets from the ceiling. Perhaps you could start feeding your chickens chicken products and turn them into cannibal chickens. One day you will wake to find that you no longer have any chickens. And then a few days after that your corn will grow back. You could then cut a message into your corn for the aliens. All this because you taught your chickens to eat themselves.

Perla said...

i do love corn stalks but i just wonder...is it really even worth it to grow corn? i mean right now they are 20 cents/ear at WalMart. hopefully you will move to a home with a full blown, beautiful garden. if not, we can just go buy some stalks at the one wreath farm that i just forgot the name of.

Mugsy said...

Nancy Nancy Nancy, Although both chicken and vegitables can provide some good life sustaing nutrion, and although the greens are innocent, (after all, they aren't going after the chickens) they have one folly. They unlike the chickens, canNOT be your truest friend. So peck little chickens! Peck to your hearts content!!For you are the true friends!!
And I love that little Pen has been trained to sit..hee hee

Mugsy said...

O and I love the title of your post! City Chickens part II

Nancy said...

Oh Megan, good point. In fact, I don't know why you are messing around thinking of buying horses. Why on earth haven't you and Josh purchased some of your own "man's best friend" chickens?! Wait, who am I kidding, with all the dogs on your street they'd only last about 2 minutes.

P, I almost started to cry for laughing at your comment. Most especially teaching my chickens to eat themselves and leaving a sign in my corn for the aliens . . . especially since I only have about a four foot box of corn. Ohhh that was good.

BS and the Kids said...

Nancy,
Yeah!!! We will for sure have to get our million gizillion kids together, or wait, was it only 14 between the 3 of us? Any which way, (Yours or the other Sarah's), for sure will have to get together. Are you buying farmland when you move back?

jami v. said...

ok nancy, i just finished reading a friend's blog, and it was all about the (augh) killing of one of their chickens. i guess,if your little chicks don't leave your garden alone, and if the hanging of chicken nuggets etc doesn't seem to deter them, i will send you to this blog and you can read them that as their "bedtime" story. :)

Nancy said...

Ha, Ha, that is so funny! (OK, well, I mean, not funny, but, you know what I mean). Yes, please send me your friends site so I can see just how bad it can get!

Liz said...

Chicken's really can be a nuisance. Maybe you can make some sort of contraption to keep them out or scatter something on the ground that they won't want to walk on. I think my mom scattered egg shells around her strawberries to keep slugs and snails from eating them. Maybe you can put tacks or big shards of glass around. Of course if your chickens are anything like my chicken was they will probably just ingest those too. Sorry, I am not much help, but let me know if you need any help in having the chicken's mysteriously disappear, I may have some ideas in that area.

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