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Writer's pictureJean Petersen

Blue feathered friends


No, my blue feathered friends are not a flock of rare blue birds, instead they are none other than my loyal flock of followers-that is if I'm toting my chicken bucket filled with scraps-my hens. 

So in my 'illustrious' wisdom, here's how it went down.

As my oldest son and I were paint branding our lambs, here flitts a curious hen.  Well, naturally holding a spray can of blue branding paint I was feeling a little 'ranch rebellious' and said, "Hey wanna paint a chicken blue?"  Now I do admit there was a slightly sinister tone in my voice as I suggested the 'cool' idea, and I was probably a tad over zealous. 

However it all happened so fast!  I had no control.  The next thing I knew my pointer finger grew a mind of it's own, it pushed down on the spray nozzle and out 'sssshhh'ed the blue paint, and, and, and....Well a blue chicken flittered and fluffed away. "Ha-ha! Sweet! That worked," I said.  Yes, probably a little too excited once again.  "Mom, what's Dad going to say?" my son asks.  "Ah!  He won't notice.  It's only one chicken,"  I said.  I could see his wheels a turnin' as I said this, an idea he did have. "Then...can we paint the dogs?" he asked.  "Um, nope.  He'd definitely notice that," I said.  So after our conversation and branding our lambs, our 'one' blue hen happily dashed and darted around the yard all day.

Well, there's a valuable lesson to ponder when one is opting to paint a fine feathered friend.  Paint dries...obviously-that's how paint has always worked, however chickens aren't aero-dynamic once air borne with feathers painted blue and dried.  Hence when you 'huck' a 'cluck' over a gate, be prepared for its air to ground drop rate.  While they do flitter and fluff through the air they also land with a thud in the mud-and break a leg.

Now, you ask yourself why the photo shows more than one blue painted chicken.  Since hucking the cluck ended up to be bad luck for my fine feathered friend, I felt compelled to hide the situation from my children.  So naturally I painted all the chickens with a dab of blue here, and a dab of blue there.  And while I camouflaged the situation it was a quite colorful scene-now definitely husband noticeable. However, it did work great for the kids which was my primary concern, not the husband, until I hear them running into the house later saying, "Mom that chicken not only broke it's leg...it's head popped off too."   Yep, that did it...I am now wishing I was more worried about what my husband might say about the blue chickens in the yard.

Note to self...don't huck a cluck and paint t'aint good for them chickens.

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