Chickens In The Yard

Back in yesteryear, most rural residents had chickens in their yard. The birds were useful for meat, eggs, feathers, and reducing the insect population. Meat included necks, wings, the "good pieces" and even the feet. Feathers were used for stuffing mattresses and pillows. Eggs were as useful then as they are now. Some chicken varieties uncluded: White Leggons, Plymouth Rocks, Banties, and Rhode Island Reds.
Everybody had their favorites.

Chickens roosted in a chicken coop at night. It was a house with rows of elevated sticks for the birds to sit on. The coop also had nesting boxes filled with straw for hens to lay eggs in. Kids didn't like the job of gatering eggs from the coop because of the aweful smell of the place.

Occasionally a fox, snake, or possum would invade the coop at night causeing a squawking/flying frenzy. A double/barreled shotgun usually eliminated the intruder.

Kids liked to catch a jar full of grasshoppers and throw they to the chickens from the porch. They loved to watch the hens try to chase them down and eat them. Roosters could be mean and spur you. Kids were afraid of them and for good reason.

Wives had the job of feeding the chickens. They would pull up their apron bottom forming a pouch; fill the pouch with grain; then walk around the yard
spreading the grain by hand. You never seen such hustle as those chickens put on then. You may not think a chicken can run...............but at feeding time, they
were speed demons!