My husband and I have 32 chickens on our little two acre parcel in small town Montana, and that number doesn’t even include the 14 ducks that maintain their residence here. When we first decided we were going to have chickens Seth (The Husband) and I knew that we wanted them to be free range chickens. If you are new to chickens or haven’t ever had them, free ranging meansthat during the day the chickens have ample room to roam around in the yard/pasture freely. So begins the story of the naughty white chicken.
We have a little over an acre of pasture fenced off for our animals, to include the chickens. Every morning at about 6a.m. we go out to the pasture and let the chickens out of their coop so that they can free range for the day. They have the entire acre of field to eat grass seeds, stand on goats, roll in the dirt and do whatever else chickens like to do. You would THINK that this would be adequate living arrangements, especially considering the fact that most chickens, even farm chickens, only have a small run to roam in. Well, 31 of our chickens are grateful, but not the naughty white chicken.
The naughty white chicken cannot be caged. No fence is high enough, no amount of asking nicely and no amount of tasty treats can be used to bribe her to stay in the pasture. You see, the naughty white chicken knows that she deserves better. The other chickens don’t even attempt to fly over the fence because they don’t believe they are capable, but the naughty white chicken knows no boundaries. She believes she can fly over the fence, so she does.
I want to be like the naughty white chicken. I want to believe in myself so much that nothing holds me back. I think we can get so caught up in our own heads that we don’t try things that we want to do. We don’t give 100% of ourselves to our goals because we’re defeated before we even begin to take action. I know that I do this. I tell myself all the reasons why I can’t do something and then I’m stuck in a vicious cycle of never reaching my goals. But not today. Today I’m going to take a lesson from the naughty white chicken. I don’t want to be like the chickens who can’t fly over the fence because they don’t even try. I know that I deserve better. Today, I begin my journey to believe in myself, even if it takes a lifetime.
