A Chicken Post

Today I thought I would tell you about something I observed this week. This story is about a rooster I know named Elvis. He lives next door. He doesn't like his pen much and now that he has spotted the girls next door. He has been sneaking around. If I am not paying attention he sneaks up and tries to take my hens for his own flock.

I was working in the pumpkins and I had left the gate open so the hens could come out here in the garden and wander around and eat bugs and just do that stuff chickens do and it always makes me so happy.

I wasn't thinking of Elvis spotting my girls. But I looked up and there he was, strutting around, dropping his wing and trying to round up one of my hens to be his chick. The hen he was paying attention to is one of my old hens, she isn't pretty anymore, she doesn't lay very much and she isn't in the best of condition. Someplace else she would already be soup. She isn't mean though and she doesn't have many friends. As I stood there Elvis was telling her how beautiful she was and I could tell making lots of promises. She started preening and looking at herself and really it did get to me to see how much her face changed by all of the attention Elvis was giving her.

I chased him off with my hoe and went back to work. A little while later, I noticed not a hen  to be seen.
I put down my hoe and walked to the gate. Sure enough, Elvis was standing out in the middle of the lawn and he was flexing his muscles, and flapping his wings, and he was surrounded by the younger hens all giggling and watching him. Standing off to the side was my older hen by herself. As I stood leaning my shoulder against the fence. The rooster saw my older hen and he walked away from his younger fans and went right up to the older hen and dropped his wing. She smiled and she wasn't that old hen anymore but was a hen that was desired.
I of course, came in the gate and broke up the moment by chasing him back home.

I have thought about it since. It reminds me that we all need friends. Life is very lonely without someone who is there to laugh at your jokes, to make you feel pretty even when there is young chicks all around. At this age, trials are beginning to take their toll on my body and my face. Just like that hen, starting to look a little worn out.
Something I have thought about  is that you never know when a special moment is going to come around the end of the fence and make a normal day into a magic day.
I am so thankful for days when little tiny bits of magic come into my life's kaleidoscope and gives me color to paint my days.

Just a chicken story today. I know chickens have beaks and can't really smile, but their eyes light up in a certain way and you just know. 
Have a lovely Thursday,
~Kim~