Everyone has heard the children’s joke about why the chicken crossed the road. Our chickens started crossing the road last fall when they discovered there was a harvested corn field over there. Talk about nummy treats laying all over!
I was hoping they’d forget about it over the winter. They didn’t. And they have begun, once again, to waddle across the road to check for any forgotten kernels. Of course, along the roadside there is tall grass to find bugs in, and the gravel on the road is perfect for a girl’s gizzard. Dust bathing sometimes occurs as an after thought.
While all this sounds wonderfully peaceful on a nice sunny day, there are people who actually drive on this gravel. And many of these people drive trucks and farm machinery. These drivers are less than enamored with our chickens lollygagging in the middle of the road. So, they honk. Truck horns can be LOUD! Especially if they have to honk them several times in a row, or for long blasts. And while most of the people honk, I have noticed that none of them slow down. And the genius chickens rarely speed up. So far we’ve all been lucky, but I’m preparing myself for a pile of feathers in the middle of the road some afternoon.
Maybe I need to make a sign: Slow Chickens