The Simple Chicken.

It’s been my experience, as someone who loves chickens, that most people don’t understand the nature of a chicken. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we eat them, or that other things really eat them. Or maybe it’s because people think they’re stupid due to their small brains. I’m not sure how they got such a bad rap. Many of you who follow me regularly know that I have lots of chickens. At the time of writing this, I have 68 chickens, to be exact. Now, that may seem like an absurd number to some people. For me, it just means 68 little souls needed to live at this farm.

I often get questions about how much work it takes to care for them, why I am so intrigued by them, or if they make a huge mess. The truth is, I really don’t think about all of that. My focus is on filling my world with things that I enjoy. It just so happens that most of the things I enjoy require an immense amount of nurturing. Whether it’s my plants, my animals, my clients, or my family, they all require nurturing and work. I’m not someone who shies away from that because I believe my mission here on this planet is to nurture the things that come into my orbit. It’s a job that I don’t take lightly, for sure. But I digress. So back to the simple chicken.

If you approach the subject of chickens with curiosity, you will quickly learn that they are much smarter than you think. They all have personalities unique to themselves, very much like humans. We have the outgoing ones like Gladys and Rufus, and the shy ones like Hootie, who we barely ever see. We have a very ladylike one in Celine. And of course, who could forget Wanda! She will get right in the truck with me and has no problem driving around.

When I started having chickens again a few years ago, I did not realize the extent of their personalities. But the more curious I became about them, and the more I gave them ideal living conditions, the more their personalities developed. It has taught me so much about what happens when you put in effort and what you get out of something. I cannot express the joy it brings me when I call them by name and they come running. And yes, they do know when I’m calling them as opposed to the dogs or the kids.

It would be a sad mistake to miss all of this by assuming they were just simple chickens. The real question comes when we look at the rest of our world and think, "Where else am I making this mistake? Where else am I thinking something is not worthy of my curiosity?" As I’ve said many times before, curiosity is truly a superpower, a gift from God—a power to be used daily, if not moment to moment. The more curious you are, the more you grow. So, not just believing they’re chickens, but believing they have a lesson to teach us and a gift to give us.

Have a blessed day my friends…

Kim