Although my new book has the chickens still living on the farm, about two months later, not all seven student characters will go on most of the new adventures in book two. As a result, I’m giving Chase and Chuck a little time in this blog to tell you where they would want to be when Peggy does sell the farm.
Fill-the-Space Chase, you might remember, is a young rooster of the Bantum Breed, which means he is very small and colorful. As they grow older, feathers often grow on their feet. By now he may have orange, gray, black and teal colors on his neck, body and in his tail. As well, his crow would be high-pitched.
Our Chase has a speech problem, if you recall, that causes him to use unnecessary sounds and words when he pauses while speaking, such as “uh,” “er,” or “you know.” Chase would like he and his Bantum hens to live in a chicken tractor. A chicken tractor is a small cage with wheels on one end so the owner could lift the opposite side and roll it to another location in the yard. That way the chickens would have access to new bugs and grubs each day, while still having protection from predators.
They would have a small hen house on the end with the wheels, which would house little nesting boxes and roosting rods. The tractor would be moved at night, while the chickens are asleep, so they wouldn’t be disturbed. The owner could rob the nests of their eggs from a back door in the hen house. It is doubtful an owner would leave the eggs in a nest for a hen to set and hatch them. There is no room in a chicken tractor for chicks that would add to the number of chickens.
Our Chase would enjoy teaching his hens how to speak, because, without his BeakSpeak friends, he would, no doubt, miss communicating and sharing ideas. Chase may decide to name each of his hens. Maybe he’d like the letter “P,” and would decide on, perhaps, Penny, Prissy, Pickles, and Peggy, in honor of his previous owner. Four hens and a rooster would be a substantial number for a chicken tractor, even for Bantums. Chase would be gentle with his hens and never argue with them. He would always mirror Chuck’s example of kindness.
Mixed-Up Chuck, our young, large, plump, yellow Buff Orpington rooster would like to live in a large house in a subdivision. He would like parents who are human, named, for instance, Gary and Anne. He would like a backdoor with a dog flap, and a backyard only so he could go out to do his bathroom business and early-morning crowing. Mostly, he would like to stay in the warmth and protection of the house.
Chuck would like to eat scratch grain, bread, red worms, crackers, rice and, now and then, a big, juicy grasshopper. He would like a family, so hopefully Gary and Anne would have a son, maybe named Zach, and a daughter, perhaps named Sara. A friendly dog, called Spike, and a cat, named Trixie,, would be nice, too. It would also be great if they would all go on short road trips.
Another thing that would make Chuck happy would be for each pet to have a bed in the den where he or she could watch TV with the family before falling off to sleep. The only thing that would bother Chuck would be that he wouldn’t be able to talk to Spike and Trixie, since “mammals” don’t talk. He would wish he could teach them to talk, but he wouldn’t want them to feel badly that they couldn’t. He could understand what his family would say though, and, because he couldn’t talk to them, at least he wouldn’t be mixing up his words anymore.
Peggy Marceaux 