Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Adventures with Chickens

SCRIPT:

[chickens clucking]

These are Ida and Bess, our first chickens. We?ve started calling them ?chicken TV?. In fact we have two channels: the rabbit channel and the chicken channel. It?s a good comparison because we literally pull up a backyard lawnchair, grab a drink and a snack, and watch. I find the programming to be quite a bit more engaging than most actual TV shows. In fact, when our tv broke about 6 years ago, we never bothered to replace it. We get unlimited interactive entertainment and laughs, 24/7, right in the back yard for far less cost than the standard cable bill. And does the cable company deliver fresh eggs every day? I don?t think so.

Ida and Bess each lay about 1 egg a day. And because they get so much protein from devouring insects in the yard the eggs have rich deep orange yolks and the flavor is like nothing you can get from a factory-farmed hen. Another bonus is their droppings. They make great compost for our garden and help enrich our difficult clay soils.

You might think I live on a farm, but I don?t. In fact, until our recent move to the East Coast, these were California urban chickens. More and more city-dwellers are discovering the joys of fresh eggs and pet hens and city codes usually allow it if you keep the numbers low and avoid getting a noisy rooster. Hens will lay eggs whether you have a rooster or not.

[rooster]

Good thing because roosters and close neighbors are not a great combination.

Chickens also travel well! When we moved from California to New Jersey just a few months ago, instead of giving away our favorite hens we decided to drive across the country with them, and our two rabbits. We had no idea how they would react to 5 days in a car. I had premonitions of being driven mad by continuous screeching and wondered if we would consider chicken salad somewhere around day 3.

One family member eloquently told us we were bleeping insane, but a few wise chicken experts assured us it would be fine.

And it was better than fine, it was fun. They hunkered down in their travel cages during the day as we drove, sometimes clucking softly, but seeming pretty content. We car- camped and each evening set up a little corral made out of chicken wire and old tent poles so they could stretch their legs and eat a bit of grass. They did great! They even laid eggs! Let me tell you there is nothing like a freshly laid poached egg first thing in the morning when camping. It was like having caviar on a mountaintop.

When we arrived in New Jersey, our car smelled a bit like a barnyard?temporarily?but everyone was fine. Ida and Bess became country chickens and are adjusting well, though we do have to take extra care to protect them from the family of foxes that live in the woods and the hawks that roost nearby. But chickens are easy. They supplement their own diet if they have plenty of yard to explore, and they put themselves to bed. At dusk they always waddle up their ramp and into the henhouse to retire. All we have to do is shut the door after them.

We?ve even become popular with the neighborhood kids. They seem to like our alternative to TV just as much as we do.