I got a Christmas letter from Roxanne’s other grandmother that read in part:
…Roxanne (who knows how to twist Grandpa around her little finger) announced, “This
farm should really have chickens.” “Sure, sure. That’s a good idea, Rox,” says Grandpa,
figuring she’ll forget about it. Next visit it was “Grandpa, if this farm had chickens,
you could have free eggs for breakfast every day.” Well, Grandpa’s been
hooked by the smiling, eager face.
Off to Fleet Farm goes Grandpa who orders 25 Rhode Island Red chicks, which come
through the mail two weeks later. A temporary chicken coop (actually a large tank)
goes into the old milking parlor, with heat lamps and protective screening. Grandpa
begs a couple of waterers and feeder from brother Bing and the chicks have a new
home after getting a drink of water. Roxy comes up from Milwaukee that day (Spring
break from school) and counts 31 chicks that all need petting. So she crawls into
the tank and sits in the straw surrounded by the chicks.
Each time Russ came up to the farm Roxy would hear cackling and race down to “her
chicks”. It wasn’t long before the soft down turned to feathers and the chicks went
to a larger coop with green grass to scratch in. These were not all hens, of course,
and roosters started feeling their manhood. One charged Roxy, but with the help
of Grandpa, she kicked it away.
When the first egg appeared on the floor we had to make nests for them where they
could sit and lay their eggs. This was done to Roxy’s satisfaction and she and her
little friend Hannah learned how to sneak their hands under the chickens and steal
the warm eggs.
For the final part of the story, read Roxanne's
account of collecting eggs.
A story written by Roxanne:
Hens' Eggs
Saturday 14 October 2006
Roxanne and Hannah went this morning to get EGGS! When they got there, they looked
in the little roosts for EGGS. Then Roxanne told Hannah that there was a hen in
one of the coops so they kept looking. Soon Roxanne found three EGGS. Roxanne's
grandpa said that they should look under the hen, so Roxanne reached under the hen
and pulled out two EGGS. Then again and again and again and soon they had fifteen
EGGS. Then Roxanne reached under one more time and felt an EGG and tried to pull
it out, but it did not come. IT WAS COMING OUT OF THE HEN!!
