Our Cousins Come to Visit

This took place recently, not a few months ago.

On winter break we had our cousins come from New York and New Jersey. They younger ones, Tal and Aaron loved the chicks. Every morning they would come with me to let the chicks out, all bundled up because of the cold. They filled their feeder, threw them scratch and sometimes even let them eat from their hands. They checked for eggs at least 5 times a day and were excited at every finding. They became experts on the chickens laying patterns and commented on everything.

Moving the Chickens to Friends'

Shachar,A friend of mine from school was over and I asked her if her family would like to take care of our chickens for about two weeks during the noisiest part of our renovation. She talked to her family and together we decided to move the chickens to their house. One Sunday my dad, my sisters, me, and my friends family went over to their house and all day long we worked on building a chicken coop. We dug a trench, weaved chicken wire together,and put up boards. Then in the afternoon when we were finally done with the coop we had to move the chickens over. We put the chicks in their house and then went on to get the older chickens in. They were much more reluctant to go in since it was the middle of the day, so we had to chase them into their house. Then along with all the kids in the neighborhood we lifted the two houses into a trailer attached to our car. We locked the coops down and drove to our destination. We tried to drive slowly and smoothly, but at every quick start-up or sharp turn we still heard flapping followed by squawking. Once we got there we unloaded the houses from the back onto a wheelbarrow. My friends' neighbor, parents and my dad all helped push, pull, carry the coops on the wagon down the big hill and to the aviary. We released the chicks first and then the big ones, and then watched them explore their new home. The ground we had chosen for their coop to be on had been full of weeds but after the aviary had been completed either they were covered in dirt, pulled up or completely stomped flat, still, the chickens pecked it . For the next couple of weeks I went over to Shachar's two or three times a week to visit the chickens. I missed them a lot. The one good thing was that I (almost) always had plenty of time in the mornings before school because I no longer let them out (though even when we still had the chicks I never had to take care of them, I simply chose to, my parents could have, and sometimes did). And there were also no dark and scary nights when I had to lock them up. But besides those two little reasons it was terrible not having them. For one, now we had to buy eggs again!!!! Slowly I started visiting the chicks less often and I did not get to watch them grow up.