Yesterday afternoon I cleaned out the chicken coop for the first time.
Wow, what a mess! I donned a dust mask and gloves and shoveled away. It was a nasty job that I suppose I will become accustom to. But being the first time, I thought Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs should have been helping me. While filling 3 large trash bags of poopie pine shavings, I wondered, "Why in the world don't we have a compost bin?" I also wondered, "Do I really love these chicken?" The answer came last night when I went to lock them up. My favorite pullet, Elizabeth, heard my voice and came out to see me. She's a pretty Americana with blue legs promising to lay blue eggs someday. I picked her up and went over to sit in an adirondack chair and look at the fading sun. She sat in my lap and then followed me back to the hen house a while later. As she hopped up on the ramp and went in, I knew that shoveling poo was worth it.
