No room for chickens

Cindy has a friend who lives in one of those 55 plus trailer parks, one of those parks where you are required to be over 55 years old, plus where there are no kids allowed, you can't park on the street, and the mobile homes sit really close together. If you have a large car, you have to be really good to squeeze into your driveway, I did see a lot of golf carts there.

Cindy got a call from Marley a few days ago, she was bawling, I mean crying so hard I could hear her and I wasn't even on the phone, she was blubbering and trying to tell Cindy what the problem was, "What do you mean they're going to kick you out?" Now I am only hearing Cindy's side of the conversation.

"What did you do?" No, yes, right, "no I don't think they will kick you out", "What!, how many do you have?" "Ok, Jimmy and I will be there tomorrow to pick them up" "no I don't want them, but my cousin will, they will be taken care of" Ok see you tomorrow, love you.

Cindy hangs up the phone and looks at me, she says "I hope that's alright with you."

From what I've  just heard I am supposed to know what's going on,  I find out that I have just volunteered to drive over to Marley's place and pick up eight chickens, then take these chickens up the mountain to Cindy's cousin because, "Marley has to get rid of them and we don't need any more chickens."

If you recall we just added to our flock last week, you remember Who is number one don't you?

Marley had evidently gone to Tractor Supply and saw the baby chicks several months ago. She then went home and pulled out her rental agreement and didn't find anywhere where it said she couldn't have a chicken, so she goes back to buy one chicken, the salesperson told her she had to buy six, so Marley buys six, and since she bought six she gets two free.

And now since she is getting eight chicks, she decided that she can go into the egg business, and now she should get accessories, which the salesperson gladly helped her with....

Cindy tells her Dad, "we won't be gone long, we are only picking up the chickens and taking them to Nancy's" this sounds like a simple task......Right?

I had thought to load a pet carrier into the truck just in case Marley didn't have anything to carry them in, and I'm glad I did because she didn't. Marley has a nice setup, a backyard coop and pen, that has plenty of room for eight chickens, the chickens are about half grown and wild as can be, it's up to me to catch them now.

It takes me about half an hour to round them up. I am inside the pen which is only about waist high, Cindy has closed the top to "keep the chickens inside" I'm on my hands and knees holding two chickens by the legs, my straw hat has somehow landed over inside the coop part, and now has several chickens doing the "Mexican Hat Dance" around it. Cindy and Marley are standing in the back yard visiting, leaving me trapped inside the pen.

Feathers are flying, chickens are squawking, I now have one each of the two chickens legs in one hand, and with the other I'm trying to open the lid which Cindy has locked from the outside. I could just stand up and lift the pen off of me, but thought the chance of me catching the chickens running wild through the trailer park would be slim to none, so I had to resort to yelling for Cindy.

"Hey CINDY!" I can hear Cindy talking ".....and then Marley you know what I woulda....What!, Oh sorry I forgot you were in there" with Cindy's help the chickens were finally all placed into the carrier and I was ready to deliver the chickens to Nancy, this is when Marley said, "The pen goes with them."

I'm looking this pen over knowing that I would have to completely disassemble it to haul it away,  "I didn't bring any tools with me" "that's OK, we can just pick it up and sit it in back of the truck" Cindy tells me, I tell her that the pen part is about 4' x 8', and the coop part is about the same size, plus the coop is about 4' tall, and there is a camper shell on the truck, the pen will have to be taken apart.

I borrow some tools from Marley and separate the coop from the pen, the nesting box area separates from the roosting area, and Cindy is convinced these three pieces will slide right into the truck, I am positive they won't, but now we are carrying the nesting box area to the truck.

"It's too tall" I said, Cindy replies "no it's not, we can lay it down", I assure her "it's too wide", "it'll fit I know it will" she tells me, "even if it does fit, we still have the rest of it to load" I remind her, "we can make two trips" she suggests, and through my teeth I say "Oh no we can't, because I'm taking it apart."

Now I find myself standing in the street removing the roof from this chicken coop because it wouldn't fit. With the roof removed it barely slid into the truck. Cindy looks at me and says, "You probably should take the rest of it apart" I'm not sure why I didn't think of that.

I completely disassembled the rest of it and stack all the panels into the truck, the back is completely full, and we now have no room for the chickens.

An executive decision was made to raise the back seats and place the chickens inside the cab of the truck, just as I'm ready to make my escape, Marley said "the rest of their stuff goes too......."

Three feeding pans, six watering bottles, three fifty pound bags of feed (two opened), twelve packages yes I said twelve packages of twelve, thirty count egg storage flats and now the cab area is full, we now have no room for the chickens.

I find room on top of the feed sacks and hope the carrier won't puncture the bags. As we drive away a tearful Marley watches her egg business idea disappear, and as we drive away Cindy and I look at each other with tears in our eyes because eight chickens in the cab of your truck adds an odor that shouldn't be there.

Have you ever volunteered to do something that turned out to be a bigger project than you first thought?