It's a Bird's Life

Lately, I can't help but humming "Birds to the left of me, chickens to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you" (thank you Stealers Wheel for that parody! - and why didn't you ever do another song?). Anyway...

Back here in the rural enclaves of the White Mountains, I seem to be destined to live an aviary life.

To the left of me, on the front porch, a momma bird decided to make a nest and lay her baby chicks. The little buggars are growing by leaps and bounds and they constantly cheep, cheep, cheep, asking momma to feed them. We keep the windows in the living room open to enjoy the breeze, but at times they raise such a cacophony I can barely hear myself think.

On the right of me I've got the hens and roosters. They're making a whole lot of noise now, too, as the roosters vie for the title of Cock o' the Walk and try using their charm and charisma to get lucky with the hens. And because we don't have the yard fenced off yet all the way, the chickens keep coming across that invisible line between their run and our grass and flower beds. We've tried training our dog, Colby Jack, to be a good chicken herder, but when we leave the house and return, it's to find piles of chicken poop all over our deck and all the leaves on the flowers mysteriously gone. As you can see from the picture on the left, they are not averse to going anywhere. Hey, who needs a coop for shelter from the weather, anyway?

I guess I asked for it, though. Just call me the Chicken Lady. Pfftt! Had a feather in my mouth.