Chickens Change You, Man

It could be argued that a small flock of birds changed my life forever.  That they brought the most deep kind of joy and heartbreak.  I have wanted chickens for a good part of my adult life and finally got my first flock in February of 2012.  Since that time, several friends have also joined the crazy chicken owners club and have shared in the same observation - Chickens Change You, Man.

Like a girl begs her parents for a pony, I had begged my husband for years to let me have chickens. Free range eggs for our special needs son's diet, I said. Compost for the garden, I pitched. No more ticks, I begged. Really, I couldn't explain my need to have them, I just knew I needed them.  One day, an unexpected opportunity came along. A deal even he couldn't pass up - a free chicken coop with 12 adult hens of varying breeds. All we had to do was come get them.  The husband finally relented and after an entire Saturday of hard work, I had my very own chickens in the back yard.

I was instantly enamored.  Instead of Yoga, I meditated by flipping over bricks and watching them eat bugs. I watched them for hours.  My son and I learned how to catch and hold them.  They replaced my fiction reading hobby when I joined an online community and began reading everything I could to learn about feed, egg production, parasites, behavior. I read ALL the chicken things. They were more than a hobby to me...they were a post apocalyptic life skill.

Little did I know that the following November, my husband would decided to leave our family.  And while the reasons are much more complex that chickens alone, looking back I see that becoming a chicken owner changed me. One night during a heated argument, my love for them led me to say something that I believe ultimately ended my marriage: "You will have to choose.  You can choose to let me have animals and be happy, or you can choose to ask me give them up and I will be forever unhappy."

That ending became a new beginning and here I am.  Thus begins this blog.