Chaos reigns at the Wildcat Road coop. Or as the author calls it “a tiny dino prison riot.”
By Michelle Sestili
Part 1: We have no idea what we’re doing. You see, there’s a chicken shortage. A bona fide, literal shortage of actual chickens, which means fewer eggs. Everyone like eggs… except the vegans.
It’s an avian flu pandemic, not a poultry farmer scheme.
Normally we have plenty of free-range chickens and eggs, but one bitter night in February we didn’t get home to lock the chicken coop until after our usual time. Raccoons had killed all but one. We call her Hen Solo now and we will avenge the death of her friends. Anyway, we miss having chickens, and all the people who needed toilet paper for a respiratory virus now want chickens for eggs.
Max became obsessed with finding baby chicks. We usually get hand-me-down chickens from friends or 4-H kid chickens from the fair. Not options. Online orders from reputable breeders wouldn’t be delivered until July. I can’t walk into a livestock auction without bringing home a carload of animals no one else bid on.
So, without other ideas, Max called the farm supply store every day for over 2 weeks to get an update on chick delivery. He wasn’t the only one. Chicks arrived a day early and were sold out in 30 minutes, but 2 boxes were delayed.
Now we have 17 delayed chicks. We have no experience raising more than 4 chicks at a time though and it’s already madness at 3 weeks old. A tiny dino prison riot. We didn’t think this all the way through.
Amateur storyteller Michelle Sestili and her husband Max decided to become homesteaders one day. They sold their stuff and moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas on January 20, 2006. A Friday. They currently live with 18 free-range chickens, Lemon the lab, and Pumpkin the porch cat on 16 acres of Wildcat Road with a garden, wily wildlife, and woodland glampsites.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We welcome guest writer, Michelle Sestili who will drop occasional tidbits from the sanctuary she and her husband, Max, (and various other nameless creatures) share on Wildcat Road. We hope you’ll be as entertained as we are with her tall tales, all of which appear to be too true. Enjoy.
