part two // the chickens

Over spring break, we gathered ourselves the day that we left my memaw's house (Alex, Andie, Memaw, and I) and searched for a place where they carried baby chicks. We ended up at Tractor Supply Co., a place as country as they come, with feed for farm animals lining the front walls and cowboys in their genuine hats and boots skimming the shelves of country goods. We each picked out two baby chicks from a frantic and hurrying bunch, and they squealed in their hole-poked boxes all the way back home. We tried naming them after placing them in the chicken house with new food and water, but I couldn't think of anything at the moment because they all looked the same to me, and I was too enveloped in capturing their tiny bodies and listening to high-pitched clucking noises that they made. Andie, my youngest sister, went all for it, and named hers Gladys and Jimmy-John-Joe.

 

 

And here they are now! These once tiny balls of fluff have now grown into some beautiful (and kind) chickens (they let us feed them out of our own hands, which, for me, was a first time experience), and they will lay eggs in the next month or so. It became a regular thing over the days that we stayed; feeding them during the day, then closing the doors to the chicken house before bedtime.

 

These chickens have now become another tradition at Memaw's house; they're like pets, in a way, and it kind of makes me want to have my own.

 

- ryan