You really SHOULD listen when the OTHER Half is talking....
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 4:05 pm
Dave's post about Chicken Tractor's got me thinking about how the Misses got started in chickens in the first place and I thought I should share it, as a PSA... It might actually help someone out there. Now remember this was years ago, when I was still working patrol and would sometimes work ten straight days then get two off... so I tried to relax on my days off....
So here we are, I am relaxing, reading a new Stephen King novel about 900 pages thick, and I'm right at a good part. Something is eating someone, or something dead is coming back to life, or something is oozing from the walls... You know how they go... and in the background I hear, "... and I'm thinking of getting a few chickens..." BlahBlahBlahWahWahBlahWah...
"Um Hum, yeah, sounds good."
The hero of the story has just discovered the secret twist to something and picked up the key to the whole thing to battle something...
In the background....
"... and then with the Chicken Tractor... wah wah blah blah, coop this and that."
"yup, sounds great, you should do that."
"Alrighty then."
I hear the truck start and go deeper into the world of Stephen King. A couple hours later... the kids come through.
"Hi dad, Hi Dad, Hi Dad, Hi Dad. Where'd mom go, trucks gone."
We have four.
"I'da know, something to do with the Chickens."
"Ah, we don't have chickens."
"Do your homework."
"kay."
Back to Mr. King and his world. Hour later, the kids come running through with their Wows and OMGs. Truck is coming up the drive and it's groaning.
Miss T is back with a huge load of wood and supplies.
Posts and wire and metal and stuff. I ended up building a coop and a chicken tractor. In about two months we had 140 Chickens.
Six months later I had built her an incubator that would hatch 100 eggs at once and the brooder that would handle 100 chicks.
She was hatching and selling chicks as fast as she could turn them around.
We ended up with two nice coops and runs there for a while... and credit where credit is due, she cleaned the coops every day and they never smelled.
She did quail next. Freshly hatched quail are about the size of a bee. They sold like hotcakes.
Bunnies we next on the list while she still had Chickens and Quail.
Quail didn't last, but she made a few bucks raising them, and selling the set up we designed.
Bunnies didn't last but she made a few bucks and on the set up she designed.
Chickens? We cut back after a couple years, but we kept about 40 until just before the move. She had been raising all kinds of rare breed chickens so the 4H kids at the middle and high schools could show them for 4H... but as they lost interest and moved on to video games, she cut back and just raised egg layers for us.
LISTEN when your spouses talk. If it sounds like angry buzzing in the background, you need to stop what you are doing and listen. You never know what they are going to come up with.
You might discover you agreed to sell your truck and buy a mini-van; you okay'd buying a time share; or worse... you are now adding a mother in law's apartment.
So here we are, I am relaxing, reading a new Stephen King novel about 900 pages thick, and I'm right at a good part. Something is eating someone, or something dead is coming back to life, or something is oozing from the walls... You know how they go... and in the background I hear, "... and I'm thinking of getting a few chickens..." BlahBlahBlahWahWahBlahWah...
"Um Hum, yeah, sounds good."
The hero of the story has just discovered the secret twist to something and picked up the key to the whole thing to battle something...
In the background....
"... and then with the Chicken Tractor... wah wah blah blah, coop this and that."
"yup, sounds great, you should do that."
"Alrighty then."
I hear the truck start and go deeper into the world of Stephen King. A couple hours later... the kids come through.
"Hi dad, Hi Dad, Hi Dad, Hi Dad. Where'd mom go, trucks gone."
We have four.
"I'da know, something to do with the Chickens."
"Ah, we don't have chickens."
"Do your homework."
"kay."
Back to Mr. King and his world. Hour later, the kids come running through with their Wows and OMGs. Truck is coming up the drive and it's groaning.
Miss T is back with a huge load of wood and supplies.
Posts and wire and metal and stuff. I ended up building a coop and a chicken tractor. In about two months we had 140 Chickens.
Six months later I had built her an incubator that would hatch 100 eggs at once and the brooder that would handle 100 chicks.
She was hatching and selling chicks as fast as she could turn them around.
We ended up with two nice coops and runs there for a while... and credit where credit is due, she cleaned the coops every day and they never smelled.
She did quail next. Freshly hatched quail are about the size of a bee. They sold like hotcakes.
Bunnies we next on the list while she still had Chickens and Quail.
Quail didn't last, but she made a few bucks raising them, and selling the set up we designed.
Bunnies didn't last but she made a few bucks and on the set up she designed.
Chickens? We cut back after a couple years, but we kept about 40 until just before the move. She had been raising all kinds of rare breed chickens so the 4H kids at the middle and high schools could show them for 4H... but as they lost interest and moved on to video games, she cut back and just raised egg layers for us.
LISTEN when your spouses talk. If it sounds like angry buzzing in the background, you need to stop what you are doing and listen. You never know what they are going to come up with.
You might discover you agreed to sell your truck and buy a mini-van; you okay'd buying a time share; or worse... you are now adding a mother in law's apartment.
