In the twenty-something years I spent in the corporate finance world, I experienced all kinds of integration. People, numbers, ideas…all are very complex to integrate. Such integration requires a plan, a committee, a timeline and maybe even an incentive. Bottom line: it is a real drag to combine things sometimes. Change is difficult.
But nothing in all my years of integrating things prepared me for “chicken integration.” Wow. What a nightmare.
I thought (very stupidly), “Let’s get a couple more cute little chickens and toss them in the coop with the others.” Thank goodness I sought advice before I did that. Apparently, those little chicks wouldn’t have make it out alive. The big ones are brutal! They will tear the babies up with their beaks. Yikes! As if I didn’t already have enough death and destruction in the chicken coop. All I needed was a couple of mutilated baby chicks to top it off.
And so began the birth of my Chicken Integration Plan. Unfortunately, the only people I could get to serve on the Committee for Chicken Integration were my daughters and my husband, and they were not what you’d call enthusiastic.
I like to call my oldest daughter The Strategist as she has strategized her way out of trouble many, many times. The Strategist had a brilliant idea. She thought that the chickens were so intellectually challenged that if we snuck the babies into the coop at night, in the dark, that when everyone woke up in the morning, nobody would even notice there were new chicks.
Actually, not a terrible idea. Chickens are really, really not smart. I researched it a bit myself, and I read that in some cases, it can work. There were a couple of instances, however, where it seemed like it was working, and then two weeks later…..BAM….death and destruction.
It cracks me up that two weeks after the babies get snuck into the coop, in the dark, one chicken looks at another chicken and says, “Hey, wait a minute. Does something seem different to you?” And then they go all Charles Manson on the babies. Given the risk, the committee voted this approach down. On to Plan B.
Wait a minute. We have no Plan B.
Finally, the brains of the operation stepped up. My husband came up with a separate, smaller coop that we could attach to the big coop. The babies could exist for a while, in full site of the big ladies, but they were safe out of pecking distance. Brilliant! Not the easiest thing to construct, but we…okay, he…figured it out.
One of the most nerve-wracking days of my life was the day we put them all together, about two weeks after they saw first each other through chicken wire. It was a little tenuous for a bit, but soon they were all doing the “Chicken Dance” together like one big, happy family. Now there’s mental picture you’ll carry for the rest of the day. You’re welcome.
So for all you chicken people out there….the lesson of this post: Do not put baby chickens in a coop with unfamiliar grown chickens, or you will get chickens nuggets. Unless, of course, you want chicken nuggets. Then go for it. But for the rest of you, introduce them first, and give them time to think they’ve known each other for years.
On another note, I’m getting ready to start my giant pumpkin growing escapade. Stay tuned for what is sure to be a complete disaster. I’d love any tips you have on the topic….pumpkins, not disasters.
Hugs and blessings always,
LITTLE JEN in the BIG WOODS
