I don’t know if other people do this, but I tend to talk or sing when I am working with my critters. I don’t think it is intentional really. I kind of rhyme things with their names and sometimes it turns into a song. This image is the result of the corn time song. Everyday I would spread some cracked corn out as an afternoon treat for the chickens.
As I left the house, I would start to sing a nonsensical tune I called the corn time
song. The flock ran to me from wherever they were. It was fun and a little frightening. Anyone who has chickens knows they can be kind of frantic. If one runs others will run faster, then more will run faster than that, and so on. Then the ones that can will take flight, so if you aren’t expecting it, the event can be overwhelming.
Over the years I have tended to become very vocal when I’m outside, talking or mumbling to myself or the dog, or even the bunnies running around the yard. It all started a while after we first moved up here, I scared myself far too many times by being silent.
I had no idea how threatening deer could be till I accidentally walked up on several. That kind of encounter causes a great deal of stomping (form them not me) and what I describe as a kind of trumpeting snorting thing. That’ll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand at attention.
That wasn’t nearly as frightening as the first time I came face to face with a bear. I was so excited to find a bear track in the yard I ran out to take a picture of it. I was quietly focused on the ground. For some strange reason I felt like someone told me to stand up. So I did, and was face to face with a bear. He was a few yards away standing on his hand legs staring at me.
I heard all the things I was told to do echoing in my head, don’t run, keep facing him, and say go away bear. You should know he cared about none of that. He continued to move toward me as I backed away. Fortunately he lost interest as there were some seeds under the feeder. It seems bears prefer eating that to the old round woman shouting at him.
After that encounter I started being noisier as I walked through the woods. The form it’s taken now is chatting with the dog or humming, thinking aloud, or just coughing. To my surprise this has not eliminated chance meetings with amazing critters. They come out, even aware of me. All of those have
been quite amazing, except the skunk. That is a whole other story.
May your chickens always come to the corn time song.
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