Temporary Housing

     Good news awaited me the next day at school. The FFA needed a spring project and

they could build a chicken coop for my little brood. With four chickens now flying, I

knew my problems would increase, if I kept them in the kitchen. Although the coop the

FFA boys were building wouldn’t be finished until after Spring Break, I had an idea.

Using existing chain link fencing I made a six by three foot enclosure out in the back yard.

     Although it didn’t have a roof, the new pen was not a dozen feet from the back door. I

placed a small wooden box on its side at one end of the pen in case it rained. Before

leaving for school the next morning I transferred their metal feeding container and water

jar to the penoutside.  Then after placing a towel in the bottom of my blue plastic food

carrier, I loaded all four at once and carried them to their new home outdoors.

     They huddled together in the cool morning air for a few minutes before they began

investigating. Maddie and Minnie, one foot at a time cautiously suspended, went to check

the box at the far end of the pen. Meg and Jo stayed in one spot and pecked at the grass

 around them. Since they seemed so content, I left for school satisfied that all the

chickens would enjoy their first day in the open air.

Wrong.

     When I came home at 4:00, two chickens were lying in the pen, dead. A

 neighbor would report later she had seen a hawk flying in the back yard that afternoon.

Heartsick at the sight, I reached down and gently gathered the remaining two in my arms.

I squatted down beside the pen, holding Minnie and Maddie in my lap for a long time. Tears wet my arms.