Hen Pecked

Those who read my last blog know that we are now the proud owners of chickens. Thirty-three to be exact! We’ve had them for a week and I’m not sure how I lived without them. As any chicken owner will tell you, they are so much fun to watch. I’ve already learned several life lessons from them.
Chickens are an intelligent species. They learn quickly, adapt well and pretty much get the picture without too much effort. They are not, however, thinking, reasoning beings. I’ve learned that there is a huge difference between having intelligent and having the ability to reason.
Let me give you some examples. They have learned that when I have a certain bowl in my hands I have goodies from my kitchen. They begin to get excited as soon as they see it. I put the goodies in their dish- apples, lettuce, bread, etc. A few quick chickens grab some pieces and run. The others all follow. They then begin to steal the pieces from one another -sometimes right out of each others mouths. This shows intelligence. They want what someone else has. If they were thinking beings, they’d realize that there is still a pan full of goodies on the ground!
They have discovered the joys of dirt. They have dug a hole for taking dirt baths in. They dig and scoop and throw dirt all over themselves. They love it. There are two dirt holes for playing in. They show intelligence by crowding around the holes waiting for their turn. They like to follow the crowd. If they were thinkers, they would figure out that the floor of the entire coop is dirt. It’s big enough for them to have their own bath hole!
There is one chicken that can’t make up her mind if she wants to be in the henhouse or in the coop. She goes in to see what’s going on inside and then she comes out to see what’s going on outside. She goes back and forth all day- sometimes just sticking her head out to see or in to see. She wants to be when the action is.
We all know people like that, people who want what others have, people who follow the crowd, people who want to be where the action is. And come to think of it- those people have intelligence. What they are lacking is the ability to think for them selves. They spend their lives running around well, like chickens. Blch, blch, blch……
That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?