After erecting a chicken coop we inherited from a professional structural engineer, I was so excited. This coop is built so well and is perfect for three hens who have the opportunity to free range. But as you know, free ranging is not a viable option when you also have two well-trained hunting dogs. So I stared at this beautiful coop and thought, what are we going to do with it?

And then I had this moment of clarity. We could add siding to the coop, turning the entire structure into the coop, and then build onto it with a fence that allowed the chickens to roam around outside. I hurried back to the house to share my moment of brilliance with my husband. Who, as I found out, was way ahead of me on that thought.

Perfect: we were aligned on the vision. Now we could get to work. I started looking for siding and getting ready to make this vision a reality. Of course, as often happens, he wasn’t too keen on this idea…yet.

Have you ever heard the phrase “One bad apple spoils the bunch”? Have you ever thought about why that is? I mean, if all the other apples are fine, why does one ruin it? Is this some extension of entropy, where the tendency of the universe moves toward disorder? I think about entropy a lot, especially when looking at my desk or my closet, and sadly I would say that both of those “systems” are constantly moving toward disorder. But I digress.

So, if one bad apple can spoil a bunch, could one good apple improve a spoiled bunch? Or put another way, could one human-friendly chicken improve a flock of human-scared chickens?

If you have spent much time with me, you will know that I love to create things, but I’m not too artistic. I have this mental picture of what I want to draw, but when it comes to creating that picture with a brush, pen, or Apple Pencil, what actually is formed is very different from what I see in my mind.

Where will we be 10 years from now?, I asked my husband. It’s a question we discuss frequently. We are no longer spring chickens (well, I still think I am), and defining what is important in life seems to be a consistent theme in our discussions of the future.

But I also know myself, and the status quo is not something I feel compelled to accept. So the question I keep asking is, “What’s next?” Now that we are clear on our core focus – sticking to animals that fly – it is time to focus on where we are going long-term.

Almost every day when I drive down my driveway past the neighbor’s pasture, I see their goat with the floppy ears hanging out with the horses. Sometimes he is perched on top of the wood stand, and sometimes he is lying on top of the horse, his legs dangling down on each side. It absolutely cracks me up every time I see it. I hear goats are pretty easy to take care of, so why not get one? I mean, they eat blackberry bushes, and we have plenty of those. And now that we can manage our chickens, why not try out some other farm animals?

My husband has also decided we should raise a lamb. (I just found out a lamb is a baby sheep. I know, I know, I didn’t learn my farm animals when I was younger.) But then, why stop at a lamb? Maybe we should get a cow? I mean, if we are going to go in, let’s go all in.

When I walk up to the chicken coop, my rooster, Sven, makes a certain sound. It is his way of notifying the flock to “pay attention.” This isn’t a special “Sven” sound as my other roosters would do the same thing. He also makes a sound I call “Happy Chicken.” When I go into the run and leave treats for the flock, Sven will make this excited clucking that sounds like he is really pleased with what I brought them. That sound always makes me smile.

The decision to get chickens was totally mine. I’d been thinking about it for a while, and then in March 2020, when the world shut down, I realized I finally had time to start building my chicken coop. My husband was a good sport and supported me during the process, including allowing me to take over the garage while building the coop, assembling and leading the transport crew (it took four men to lift the coop into a trailer and move it to its final destination) and leveling the coop. Once I realized I would need some sort of fence to protect the chickens, he made multiple trips to Portland to pick up a dog run that I found on Craig’s List. And he spent a lot of energy digging below grade to ensure that no rodents could dig under the fence and get to our chickens.

Those of you who know me know how much I love process. I graduated from college with a degree in chemical engineering and took off to become a process engineer. I don’t know why, but my brain likes the order that comes from having a process. However, in college, I also earned the nickname “the creative chemical engineer.” So, while I do like process, I also like the freedom of being able to create. And I don’t think those two things are diametrically opposed.

An Interesting Response.

When I was first thinking about getting chickens, I would ask other chicken owners how many chickens they had. Strangely, the answer was almost always a pause and then, “I’m not sure. Let me think about that.” I found that response baffling. How do you not know how many chickens you have?

I followed that question with, “How many eggs do you get a day?” And again, the answer was less than concrete. They’d say, “It depends.”

I remember thinking that both of these responses were confusing.