Chicken People Page #3

- No question there.

- No question, because

he'll know that missing

two shows out of 200,

whatever they do for the year,

if you miss two shows,

they'll fire you.

- Branson is the type of place,

i have come to find,

that a lot of entertainers

go to die, basically.

You get stuck

and mired in the mud,

and you spend 20 years

being a chorus girl.

Two, three.

Perfect, thank you.

Right on down,

we'll get you seated.

We'll get a picture

of the three of you together.

Then we'll get you seated, okay?

One, two, three.

Perfect, thank y'all.

Right on down the aisle.

I'm here because I've got

my job with extreme photo.

- Will you just watch

for blurry pictures?

- For me, right now,

this is a transition time

to just figure out

where I want to be,

what I want to be doing,

that sort of thing.

It's an odd dynamic tonight.

- That's right.

- Thank you.

- So this is where

I am right now.

There's good to it;

There's a lot of bad to it.

But that's life.

- I miss everything about

my chickens when I'm away.

They're my best friends.

- They get to sleep

next to my pillow.

And that's another one of those,

"you let the bird

in the house?" Things.

You know, yeah, I do.

- See, if you hear my voice,

then you're better, huh?

Huh?

If you hear my voice,

then you're better.

- This is grass

is still growing.

My birds are a little leggy,

or longer in the leg

than I would like to have them.

My black silkies.

So I paired my breeding pen

with a male

I feel will fix that.

Stud muffin.

I call him a stud muffin

because he's just

a really prolific breeder.

He thinks that this

is his kingdom

and these are his women.

12, 13...13 girls.

And every egg for the last

four weeks has been fertile.

I'd call that a stud muffin

if I were you.

He's just really good

at what he does.

- This week,

I'm returning to Anna

to help my parents and work

on my breeding program.

We're right in the prime time

to start hatching

for the Ohio national

in November.

This building is where

i keep all of my show birds--

leghorns and reds

and australorps.

They all have single combs.

This is actually

one of my favorite females.

She's my buddy, aren't you?

You see how calm she is,

and many people,

you tell them

you raise leghorns,

they go,

"oh, leghorns are crazy."

Does that look crazy to you?

I haven't done

much drastic changing

of my white leghorn bantams

in eight to ten years.

They can compete with anyone

the way they are.

The "standard" says

the first two points

on the comb

should stand straight up.

After that,

it should lop to the side,

but not to cover the eye.

And as you can see,

that's an exemplary comb.

That's exactly

what the "standard" calls for.

Breeding chickens

is not rocket science.

You can sit and make anything

difficult if you want to.

You can make how to fry an egg

way more difficult

than it needs to be.

I've used one

of my foundation males,

and I've taken daughters of his,

and I've put the daughters in

with their sire.

This is what we call

line breeding.

And when you line-breed,

you're strengthening

those genetic markers.

Now you're gonna get

some female action.

That sounded filthy, didn't it?

Ha, female action.

- Oh, chicken sex.

Well, looks like I'm gonna

get fertility out of that one.

That was--that was quick.

- When you have a male

in with females

and he finds food on the ground

or he finds a worm,

which is just like gold

to a chicken,

you'll hear the male,

"bok-bok, bok-bok...

Bok-bok-bok."

He's calling those females.

"I found food."

He invites them to dinner,

and then they're close enough

that he can just hop right on

and get down to business.

So there it is.

Leghorns have a tendency

to be a little more vigorous.

- In preparation,

the male dances.

He puts his wing out,

and it's, like,

something like this.

And then the girls just kind of,

like, know to just drop it.

There's no pleasure involved,

because it's not like--

they don't make noises.

Just like wham, bam,

thank you, ma'am.

It's over with that fast.

- And the roosters,

they love their hens,

and they will absolutely

take a bullet for them.

If there's a hawk,

the rooster will go, "braw!"

And all the hens and the chicks

run for cover.

And the male stands right there

and flaps his wings

and says,

"you want a piece of me?

You want a piece of me?"

And he'll absolutely

sacrifice himself for the hens.

- Yeah, this is one

of my older females.

That's probably

why she hasn't been laying.

I'm so intense in what I do.

I get up in the morning,

I'm wide open, I never quit.

And so I won't give up

anything that I'm doing

to have a relationship.

I'm gonna pick a different one

to put in with that male.

There's a couple out there

that caught my eye today

when they were running around.

I know I can find them again.

I got their face

in my head now.

Little family.

My lifestyle is not right

for having a family

or even a permanent girlfriend

all the time.

But I had Jackie for a while,

and it worked pretty well

for quite a few years.

And I met her

at a chicken show.

So we had a great relationship,

but it just didn't turn out

in the end to be right.

And now

we're good friends still.

Here's a group that they've

been in there for ten days,

and they have never

been candled.

I don't know which is fertile,

which isn't.

That one is fertile.

You can see

the blood vessels in it.

Oops, I just dropped that one.

It's still okay, though.

That one's no good.

That one's really good.

This is

a silver-laced wyandotte.

It's another possible

champion baby, you know,

every time.

- Everything really has

to be done almost perfectly.

They have to pip

into the air cell,

and the air cell

has to be dry enough

that they don't drown.

I think they kind of gather

their energy at that point.

And then they start

their journey.

All of a sudden, it's like,

you're dark,

you're in the shell,

you're, like, working

your ass off to get out,

and all of a sudden, bam.

It's like,

hello, world, you know?

I mean, you think about going

from the dark into the light.

Welcome to the world,

little guy.

As soon as they come

out of the shell,

they open their eyes.

It's like the world

is like, boom.

I love that part.

You ready to come out of here,

bubba?

Just show him

where the water is.

Come on, babies.

This guy might have

to have a hobble,

because his little leg

is sticking out to the side,

and that happens sometimes.

So what I'll do is see

if he's able to get up on it

so it's sitting

underneath of him.

If not, then I'll make

a little string,

like the other one,

to help keep his leg in place.

I believe everything

should have a chance.

- Got to love him.

Didn't quite make it

out of his shell.

He's not gonna make it.

We're gonna have to--

gonna have to take care

of that guy,

and that's not a fun job.

One, two, three, four reds,

six leghorns,

and two faverolles.

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