Posted in Chickens, tagged Chickens, Survivor, Trish (the chicken) on October 8, 2009| 2 Comments »
I watched “Survivor” tonight and rolled my eyes when Shambo (Shambo!) let a chicken escape and her tribe freaked out. I actually said, “They should stop chasing it. It will come back to the cage at night.” And those words were preceded by that old-ladyish “tsk” sound. I don’t even know what to say about myself. I can’t believe it has come to this.
Here is some video of Trish and me. Two are as one.
Posted in Random, tagged Brussels sprouts, Chickens on October 5, 2009| 1 Comment »
Here is my hyper-locally famous recipe for Brussels sprouts:
Cover the bottom of a large frying pan with sesame oil. Add minced garlic and sea salt.
Step 1: oil, garlic, sea salt
Wash the sprouts, cut off the stems, and cut them in half lengthwise. Place them in the pan, cut side down. Drizzle more oil and sprinkle more sea salt on top.
Step 2: add sprouts cut side down and drizzle more oil on top
Heat covered on medium high for 10-15 minutes until they are brown on the cut side. Under no circumstances should you leave them cooking while you check to make sure your chicken has food and water. This is what will happen:
Step 3: brown them, don't burn them
Once they are browned, turn heat to low and cook for 5-10 minutes more. Add more salt if necessary to counteract residual bitterness.
That’s it: a crowd pleaser!
Posted in Chickens, tagged Bright ideas, Chicken coop, Chickens, Trish (the chicken) on September 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »
The wing clipping did not work. Eddie reports that she escaped again. Maybe I need to clip more.
I’ll let Trish herself tell you about her escapades.
Posted in Chickens, tagged Bright ideas, Chicken coop, Chickens, Clipping, Death, Kids, Trish (the chicken) on September 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »
I had to have the following conversation with my neighbor’s middle-aged son.
Me, at the front door: “Um, hi. Sorry to bother you, but have you seen my chicken?”
Him: “Oh that’s yours? My dad was going to go buy some feed.”
Me: “Yeah, it’s mine. She learned how to get out and now we can’t find her. If you see her, she answers to the name of ‘Trish.'”
Him: “I had some chickens when I lived in Pooler. They are unusual animals.”
Occasionally, Trish has flown the coop. Once nabbed and returned, she usually stays in for a few days. Yesterday, though, she was bold. Every time Eddie and I went outside, she was out of her yard. We must have captured her six times. And Eddie was mad because she kept kicking the pine straw out of the flower beds.
Today, we came home around lunchtime and she was gone. Yes, I walked around our house and the neighborhood hollering “Trish!” and feeling like a buffoon. I figured I would only worry if she didn’t return to the coop at night.
I started to wash my car and I heard Dominic yelling, “Mama, I found Trish!” I looked up and saw him coming from the side yard holding Trish to his chest. She seemed oddly content. Apparently, she had been amusing herself near the backyard fence. I don’t know how I could have missed her when I was walking around.
I knew it was time to clip her wings to avoid future AWOLs. Trish = grounded.
Clipping in progress
The result. No birds were harmed in the clipping of the wing.
We’re rednecks. My shirtless kids like to hang out with the chicken.
Posted in Chickens, tagged Chicken coop, Chickens, Trish (the chicken) on September 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Trish and I have a special bond. She comes when I call her. Just watch.
Posted in Chickens, tagged Bright ideas, Chicken coop, Chickens, Death, Loneliness, Pecking order, Trish (the chicken), Trish (the human) on September 20, 2009| 1 Comment »
I woke up one morning and wanted chickens. I don’t know why. I just did. I mentioned it to my long-suffering husband Eddie, who said, “You’re kidding, right?”
I gave it a week. I still wanted chickens. So I asked Eddie to make a coop (he’s handy). He ignored me. I think he thought I would forget about it. I didn’t.
I went to a feed store and took a picture of a coop. I researched coop designs. I drew the plan and gave it to Eddie. He sighed and went into the garage.
The coop is a fancy, two-story affair with a covered run. The back is chicken wire and we put it up against one of our sunroom windows so that we could check on the chickens and egg production from the comfort of our home.
I made friends at the feed store. They called me when a new batch of chicks arrived. Eddie and I picked out two Araucanas, a Rhode Island Red and a Sex Link. I named them Heidi, Terri, Trish and Linda after four good friends.
All was well for almost a month. We kept them inside until it was time for them to move into the coop. 
The weekend after the big move-in, we went out of town and left the neighbor girl in charge of checking on them. Her dad called us on Saturday night to report there had been a mishap.
We returned home to find an unpleasant scene. Only Trish was still alive. We called her namesake. Human Trish said, “Of course she was the smartest one.” Human Terri was very sad. Human Heidi wanted a forensics expert called in. Human Linda couldn’t be reached for comment at the time.
We had a dilemma: We didn’t want Trish to be lonely, but we couldn’t add an adult chicken in with her, or more chicks because of pecking order issues. We decided to wait until she was full-grown, then add a friend.
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Observe and report 