THE GREAT CHICKEN REBELLION OF 2020 PT. 7
I had done all I could. The rest was up to birds who seemed as though they were determined to see me bend over so far backwards on their behalf that my forehead would touch my heels. They would have to realize that eggs could be laid just as well in this new arrangement as they had in the old. I was not about to negotiate any further.
When I finally did bring home bales of straw the following Wednesday morning, I set to work making the house and the bin as irresistible as I could possibly get them. Then, I took a hammer and I removed two of the four despicable nests in the poultry house that had become nothing but abominations. I would leave two, I decided, not because I liked them, because by this time I hated them more than I think the chickens ever did, but just in case someone did want to use one again. Later, I showed my sister my handiwork and after observing what I had done, she added a touch of her own. She took an armful of fresh straw and set it within an old rabbit hutch that I had been planning on fixing and maybe selling. Then, in a minor adjustment a few days later, she hung a mat over the opened door for a bit of privacy. Guess which abode the hens finally chose to lay their eggs in?
All that work, all that sweat, and all that worry and all it took was an old rabbit hutch to assuage them? I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! Had I known this, I could have ended the revolt long before this and with less expense!
The Great Chicken Rebellion of 2020 is now pretty much a thing of the past. The hens love their hutch and, happily, they have also begun to lay in the garbage can bin turned laying bin. The egg production still isn’t quite what it was, but we are going into the molt and it is hot. Those two things right there will slow things down. Nevertheless, I can fill orders again for my customers and this is good. The little picket signs have been tossed aside and things have returned to a somewhat state or normal with one last concession having been made – I took down the last two contemptible nests, put the boxes back in the shed, and none of us ever wants to see them again!
