Avian Extracurriculars

Recognizing the need for avian extracurricular activities, I filled my bicycle basket with baby chickens until they learned to ride on the handlebars. Their wings catching on the wind, they would soar down from their perch with little grace. And so I tested one chick’s balance atop my pony Fred’s withers. Midway through this bareback pony ride, the chick leapt or fell or fluttered down into the neighboring eroded ditch. Slipping off Fred to retrieve my bird, I found him wide-eyed in a nest of worms, feasting on this wriggling mess. Very little could make a chicken keeper more proud.