PET CHICKENS

What you need to make your life complete is a "Silkie" chicken. They're fluffy, frisky, friendly, and intelligent.

You can actually train a Silkie -- you can even let him/her wander and you won't lose your darling pet. Silkies, like all chickens, know where there live, and habitually, at dusk, find their way home.

"Leghorn" chickens, in fact, lay more eggs, but Silkies -- for beauty, for petting (as it pat-pat, or softly caress) -- a couple of Silkies are what the chicken pet lovers lovingly recommend.

I've read two articles about them, and even I can now advise you.

... Hmm ... why am I writing this? am I thinking of getting a chicken for a pet ... ?

Clearly, a chicken pet is low maintenance. Of course, they need shelter and food, but what they need is minimal --"Somewhere between a goldfish and a cat," says a Silkie lover who has 12 hens in his back yard in Philadelphia.

You don't have to walk them, and pick up their poop with a plastic bag or a shovel. And though building a coop does takes a little work, you can buy a smallish dog house, buy chicken wire at your hardware store, and quite easily create a fenced-in coop for three or four chickens.

Aside from being an interesting, intelligent pet, with a lot of personality, they can eat weeds, spiders, worms, grasshoppers, fleas, ticks. bugs, peck at grasses, and eat weeds. Also, instead of a traditional chicken shed, you could create a movable pen -- let your chickens graze in the yard and move the pen every day or two. It's a synergistic relationship -- the chickens and the lawn benefit!

... Hmm ... there seem to be quite a few advantages, even different colors -- lavender Silkies, blue, orange -- orange would match my hall walls ...

Furthermore, treats for your chicken pet can be leftovers -- you can hang a cabbage or an apple from the coop's ceiling, and your pet will eat up every last bit.

So, do I want a Silkie? NO! But reading about chickens as pets, a wave of nostalgia has came over me -- our cat "Helpy," our dog "Teechie," our pigeon "Little Soup" taught me NO PETS if you live on the top floor in the heart of New York City, even though our best friend has such joy from her dogs, and our son in North Hollywood now has three cats whom he adores, but ... .
♪ "There - ain't - no - body - here -but -us - chic -kens!"

... I sang and danced to that song how many years ago ...?

Umpteen years ago I tried (with a black girl friend), to be the "Black & White Dance Duo." We created a 2 minute choreography. auditioned for Duke Ellington (yes, the guy himself). He said "Maybe." And his manager asked for Emily Fox's phone number. (I changed my last name to "Fox.")

Nobody called.

Then we auditioned for Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five, and Louis nodded and said, "Yes, maybe."

Nobody called Emily Fox or my black girl friend, but I played and replayed all the Louis Jordan and Duke Ellington records till they were completely worn out. Now I've got Dvds, but-Emily Fox -- I am not.

Here's an irresistible version of "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" -- listen for a minute and you'll be dancing with Emily Fox.



Got a back yard? Want to dance with your pets? Then, here's what you need.