Speech topic for college class... Chickens or eggs?

[jossanne]

I'm taking public speaking in school this semester, and my first assignment (next week) is a show-and-tell speech. The assignment instructions say, "Name the value which characterizes your life that the item represents." So I'm considering my chickens or eggs, just because I know it will be totally unique and different than anything else presented in class.

Here's the question... what value do my birds or their eggs represent in my life??? I've got some ideas, but would like ideas from others too, please! And which would you do? The chickens themselves (pictures, obviously) or the eggs???

 

[PineappleMama]

I'd go with chickens... besides eating there's not a lot an egg can do for you.
But birds themselves offer companionship, entertainment, feathers, meat, eggs, bug control...

Either you can do the Self-Sufficient thing, lower carbon footprint, no fear of salmonella, neighbor relations, a job well done (coop), feelings of responsibility and achievement...

But overall, seems like you'll have more things to discuss with chicken since they're "alive"

 

[jossanne]

I sat down and typed up what I'd like to say in my speech. I've got it on notecards and it's a bit too long, but this is basically what I'm going to say. All the college freshmen in my class will think I've gone off my rocker...

I’m weird. I know it. I suppose I could help it if I wanted to. But I don’t want to.

My hobby is chickens. I should say that my addiction is chickens. I have many chickens, probably about 70, in nearly every color variety possible. I have chickens with curly feathers and chickens with fluffy feathers that feel like cat fur. I have big chickens just for laying eggs, and I have little chickens just because they’re cute. I have roosters around the yard to keep watch over the hens and to add color and variety to my chicken rainbow. I have baby chickens living in Rubbermaid tubs in my house, and occasionally a full-grown chicken wearing a diaper running around freely inside our home. I have a coop for the half-grown chicks and one for the laying hens.

My husband has learned to deal with my chicken addiction, and seems to have gotten over the embarrassment of being married to the Crazy Chicken Lady. My kids blush and just hope I don’t bring up my chickens in conversations around their friends. My friends and neighbors call me for advice when they have a sick chicken or if they’re looking into getting a flock of chickens for themselves. Everyone in the community knows that if they want chicks, I usually have a supply and am willing to spread the chicken joy freely.

Chickens make me happy. For entertainment, I grab a sack of old bread ends and go sit outside and call the chickens. “Here chick chick chicks!” They come running and gather in a mob around me while I break off little pieces for them to eat. Some are friendly and take it from my hands, while others are shy and I have to toss the pieces a few feet away from me so they will get their fair share. But I love each one of them and have names for a majority of the chickens running around my yard. There is Lloyd, a particularly bossy rooster that I named after my dad, and Queen Latifah, a big, beautiful black hen that makes me laugh. There are Big Bertha, Ethel, Babs and Mrs. Party and my particular favorite, Trophy, who is practicing to win grand prize at the county fair. Others tend to hang around in groups with other birds identical to them, so they have group names. There are the Buffies, the Pearls, the Dots and the Blues.

When I am frustrated with my kids (I have a lot of them as well), I know that if I’ll just go sit outside with my chickens I will calm down, regain my ability to cope with my life, and be able to be the good mom when I go back into the house. The chickens don’t get mad at me if I’m grouchy, and they don’t talk back if I have to break up a squabble. They follow me around the yard and they worship the ground that I walk on. At least I pretend that they do. Really I’m sure they just want the treats they’ve come to expect from me, but I can fantasize that they all adore me.

The happiness that the chickens bring me came as a pleasant surprise. I bought my first 25 chickens to produce eggs for my family. We want to be self-sufficient, and the chickens help us move in that direction. We are a large family and my teenage boys especially require a lot of food. Eggs are a good, healthy protein, and my chickens provide them for us at a much lower cost than the grocery store does. We grow a garden, and we raise a lot of our own meat. We raise some chickens just for butchering, and the occasional turkey as well. We want to get a milk cow and raise a few head of beef in the near future, but for now the chickens provide us with a modicum of self-sufficiency.

To us, being self-sufficient means producing most of the necessary items required to support our family rather than having to purchase them. When times get tough, we hope that we will be able to feed our family without having to spend money at the grocery store. If we were to lose my husband’s income, we would be comforted knowing that we could at least provide enough food to keep our family adequately fed.

My chickens add to the goal of self-sufficiency with the many eggs that they lay. We eat a lot of eggs in our home, and have a lot left over to sell to friends and neighbors. So far this year, for example, my chickens have produced 360 dozen eggs at a cost of $350 in feed. I have sold $325 worth of eggs, leaving my family with about 200 dozen eggs to consume. Believe me, we eat that many eggs! But those 200 dozen eggs have only cost us around $25 after subtracting the feed costs from the sales totals. To me, that feels really self-sufficient, and it’s a great thing.

So yes, I’m weird. I think it is a good weird, though. My chicken addiction brings me happiness. It brings me company when I’m bored, angry or lonely. It brings me sanity when my family makes me insane. And as an added bonus, it brings me food for my growing family. That’s a great feeling – one that I hope to keep forever! Long live chickens!

 

[jossanne]

Quote:
Thanks PineappleMama!!! Appreciate your input.

 

[turney31]

Good for you, hold your head up and convert them.

 

[theoldchick]

My final speech for public speaking course was the importance of clipping a bird's wings. We were allowed to bring 'props' and my silkie was the star of the class. I vote for the chicken.

 

[Kim_NC]

Nice light hearted speach, but with a purpose or clear point. I would loose the 'confession' about the chicken diaper. Perhaps get a comment in about the variety of egg shell colors and egg sizes.

 

[jossanne]

Only have 3-5 minutes. A lot of that is going to have to be trimmed. And I'll have a dozen eggs for show and tell, including green, dark brown, etc.