Chicken People Page #4

Good job.

Two faverolles.

- Two faverolles.

- 21 total.

- I knew there was a--

- well, 22.

There's one down there that

didn't make it out of the egg,

and you're gonna have

to take care of him for me,

because he's not well.

- I'll do it.

- All right.

- He was willing to separate

with the horses,

and he was willing

to separate with the sheep.

But don't ever try to take

his chickens away from him.

I think you'd take

his heart out, you know?

- I want to take the workload

off of my parents.

That's one of my

number one goals.

I want to purchase

a farm of my own

where I can take the birds

with me.

My dad's done nothing

but help me my whole life.

I feel like I'm doing

the opposite of that,

because as much

as I love chickens,

my dad's my dad.

And, you know...

- I messed up on the humidity,

and they got a little dry.

And he was stuck,

but he's doing fine now.

When I was nine, I got chicks

in the mail from a hatchery.

You open the box,

and you got these little chicks.

And it was my first real pet.

I mean, I had a dog, but...

Since I've started,

I've probably hatched

30,000 chicks.

I don't know.

I'm just gonna take some water

and spray the eggs a little bit.

- When he was

about eight years old,

we set up the Incubator

in his bedroom.

As I remember,

he was like a nervous mother

with a new baby.

- They'd lay right out

on the newspaper asleep,

and I'd wake up in the night

and I'd look at them,

and I'm all upset because

i thought my chicks died.

So I'm poking them,

and they wake up,

and they're like--

none of them were dead.

They were all fine.

But I just wasn't used to chicks

sleeping like that.

You can hear the difference

in that male, right?

White wings, voice?

It's definitely a male.

- It didn't take too long

that we were thinking

that our house

was starting to--

- smell like

a chicken house.

- Smell like a chicken house.

We had this old garage

that we actually didn't use,

so we let him put

his chickens in there.

- Newspaper

and 250-watt heat lamp

is not a good combination.

So, anyway,

that didn't go well.

- All I know is,

we looked out the window,

and the place

was all in flames.

And by the time

the fire department

got here after we called,

it was, like,

burnt right to the ground.

- That was a bad day.

- It burned everything up.

He was really torn up

over that.

So I said, "well,

don't worry about it, bri."

I said, "we'll go down

and get the lumber,"

and I said, "you and i

will build a brand-new one."

And we did.

- It was only six or seven miles

from where I lived.

And some friends told me

about his loss to the fire.

And I think, initially,

that's how Brian and i

got together.

- And he started taking me

to the shows with him.

- The first show we went to,

his enthusiasm was obvious.

- Wow.

You know, I had never seen

some of these birds.

They were, like, incredible.

That was it.

I was done. I was hooked.

Now we got to move on

to the silver-laced wyandotte.

This is gonna be 6,003.

And I use wing bands.

They have a number on them.

They go in the wing,

and I record the number

of the bird,

because my old mentor

dick Stevens,

he always said, "you got to know

what's behind them," he says.

- Otherwise, how do you know

what you're doing?

- 'Cause I see so many

grandparent traits

pop out in these birds,

it's incredible.

- And we're very sorry

that a poor bird

had to lose his life

so that we can eat well.

- Amen.

- Amen.

- Bless the Turkey

and damn the skin.

Open your mouth

and cram it in.

- Yeah, I do eat chicken.

I like chicken;

I eat chicken.

I don't eat my chickens,

but I eat chicken.

- We do;

We eat our chickens

when they don't quite make

the "standard of perfection."

- Sure, I eat my own chickens.

- No way I could ever do that.

- I have fried chicken

anytime I want it.

- This is like the biggest damn

chicken, I think, on earth.

You know, there's bantams

and large fowl.

This is like

jumbo fowl, here.

- I've got a good idea,

this is so fun.

One person starts

making noise,

like, ting-ting-ting-ting,

then somebody joins in

with a different noise.

And you got to keep going.

Ting-ting-ting-ting...

- Boom-t'ss, boom-t'ss...

- I'm next?

- Yeah.

- Dee-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dee...

- Go, Kyle.

- No.

- Oh, there it is!

Nobody helped me!

- I met Larry

when I was divorced,

living with my kids.

Larry and I got married

in 2000.

- Are the brats cheesy

or regular?

- I don't know;

They're brats.

- I don't want one.

- Have they been soaked

in beer?

- I can make them

beer brats if you want.

- I'll take a beer brat.

- Okay, no,

i can't eat that.

- Mom, alcohol

burns out of sausage.

- Now they're beer brats.

- I like beer brats,

i guess.

- Oh, great.

Yuck.

- Oh, great.

- Mm-hmm.

Back when I was drinking,

I mean, there was no way

that I was there for my kids

like I should have been,

I mean, because you can't.

I mean, you may think you are,

but you're really not.

- She'd get us up

for school every morning,

but by the time we got home,

I mean, she was

completely drunk.

- She got to a point where,

you know, she was

basically miserable.

- I didn't do anything

with myself, you know.

And then I found something

that I really loved to focus on.

When I switched over to really

concentrating on my chickens,

I started to get

really more involved,

kind of like an outlet for me.

I just wanted

to give it my all,

which, that's what I did.

- We would much rather her

be spending all this time

doing something healthy,

where, you know, she could be

drunk and in bed

by the time we have dinner.

We take it--i mean,

it is what it is.

- The guys at work call me

queen feather legs.

I work with all men.

- We make fun

of our mom sometimes,

because she goes to sleep

and has, like, gel in her hair,

and wakes up, she looks exactly

like a Polish chicken does.

Maybe we both look

a little fluffy today.

- No, I do not look

like my chickens.

My chickens are

about 30 inches tall.

- Everyone always wants to know,

how was your trip?

I have no memory of my trip.

Zero.

I don't remember where I stayed

in a motel.

I don't remember

where I stopped for gas,

because all the time

I'm driving,

my head is thinking about stuff.

Oh, yeah, she's good now.

How am I gonna make

this thing run better?

How am I gonna

make this bird better?

I started building engines

when I was 14, with my dad.

In my early 20s,

i took over.

He let me do it,

and I just did it ever since.

Tractor pull, it's a contest

to pull a weight-transfer sled

down the track,

and the farthest distance wins.

It's just like nascar,

drag racing.

It's a motorsport.

My parents started drag racing

when I was four years old.

So I don't ever remember

not having

a race car in the garage.

Originally my dad drove,

and she drove the same car,

but she can make it go faster.

- I didn't grow up saying,

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