Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | B-P Golden Oldies: "The listserv troubled by a bad conscience and a good memory."" < [log in to unmask]> |
Date: | Tue, 1 Aug 2006 11:49:22 -0100 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
We had a small flock of Guinea hens. Though we live just past the orange
line on a real estate advertising map that runs north-south across the
width of Long Island and distinguishes urban from rural we have chicken
laws. The chicken laws came before the all night golf course and at some
milestone following after the Magna Carta. The essential law is that
unless we are official designated 'farmers' we can have a maximum of 6
chickens and zero roosters. It also seems we can have a horse but
considering the limitation of space that may prove inconvenient (though
having a horse live in the garage is my profound experience of horses).
I do not know as yet the law on Jackasses, but Kathy wants one... more.
Oddly, Guinea hens which are very loud and contentious there is no limit
on how many of those we can have. They are good, it is said, for control
of tick populations. At the time we thought it important to save our
offspring and ourselves from the rampant infestation of bloody ticks. At
one time we had fifteen chickens, for a while Kathy was known as the
Chicken Lady and whenever any of our neighbors found a mangled chicken
running loose (and we live in what has architecturally morphed from
summer beach colony with dabs of speculation and the odd wealthy
publisher scion bopped on the nose by Hemingway to working class suburb)
they would bring it to Kathy... and here and there a rooster in the
mix... we learned to be paranoid regarding visitations of the Chicken
Police. Considering that we wish to remain below the radar when it comes
to poultry politics what roosters we had eventually we gave to a nearby
farmer who complained about the increased pressure from the urbanites
themselves complaining about organic processes like manure smells. But,
Guinea hens, unlike most chickens that I have known, fly and they would
roost in the oak trees surrounding our property (and I may mention the
micro-burst twister we had that ripped down more than a dozen oaks down
the street from us a few weeks ago). I would not exactly say that they
were free range, like the Prarie Dogs, Iguana and the pet Starling
became, though our only control of them was feeding. One white hen must
have felt left out of the chicken affinity group -- considering it was a
survivor of the racoon wars -- as it in time also took to flying and
roosting in the oak trees. So there would be this flock of rather ugly
looking nasty gray birds with one white. I remember one time a mother
pulled up in her SUV on the street next to our side yard (the one I try
to keep neat of debris and mowed) and pointed out at our Guinea hens to
her young children that we raised turkeys. It makes me happy to inspire
youth to potentials in their future lives. The basis of a good education
is to realize what one can do with their time if they so desire.
][<
--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://listserv.icors.org/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
|
|
|