No, my blue feathered friends are not a flock of rare blue birds, instead they are none other than my loyal flock of followers-that is if I'm toting my chicken bucket filled with scraps-my hens.
So in my 'illustrious' wisdom, here's how it went down.
As my oldest son and I were paint branding our lambs, here flitts a curious hen. Well, naturally holding a spray can of blue branding paint I was feeling a little 'ranch rebellious' and said, "Hey wanna paint a chicken blue?" Now I do admit there was a slightly sinister tone in my voice as I suggested the 'cool' idea, and I was probably a tad over zealous.
However it all happened so fast! I had no control. The next thing I knew my pointer finger grew a mind of it's own, it pushed down on the spray nozzle and out 'sssshhh'ed the blue paint, and, and, and....Well a blue chicken flittered and fluffed away. "Ha-ha! Sweet! That worked," I said. Yes, probably a little too excited once again. "Mom, what's Dad going to say?" my son asks. "Ah! He won't notice. It's only one chicken," I said. I could see his wheels a turnin' as I said this, an idea he did have. "Then...can we paint the dogs?" he asked. "Um, nope. He'd definitely notice that," I said. So after our conversation and branding our lambs, our 'one' blue hen happily dashed and darted around the yard all day.
Well, there's a valuable lesson to ponder when one is opting to paint a fine feathered friend. Paint dries...obviously-that's how paint has always worked, however chickens aren't aero-dynamic once air borne with feathers painted blue and dried. Hence when you 'huck' a 'cluck' over a gate, be prepared for its air to ground drop rate. While they do flitter and fluff through the air they also land with a thud in the mud-and break a leg.
Now, you ask yourself why the photo shows more than one blue painted chicken. Since hucking the cluck ended up to be bad luck for my fine feathered friend, I felt compelled to hide the situation from my children. So naturally I painted all the chickens with a dab of blue here, and a dab of blue there. And while I camouflaged the situation it was a quite colorful scene-now definitely husband noticeable. However, it did work great for the kids which was my primary concern, not the husband, until I hear them running into the house later saying, "Mom that chicken not only broke it's leg...it's head popped off too." Yep, that did it...I am now wishing I was more worried about what my husband might say about the blue chickens in the yard.
Note to self...don't huck a cluck and paint t'aint good for them chickens.