Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
The Egg Song

The Egg Song

Last updated on: August 8, 2022 at 4:26 pm by Mary Pezzulo

The Egg Song 2022-08-08T16:26:08-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

All right, a pleasant story this time. I’ll tell you about how I ended up wandering around a chicken coop, trying to save a chicken named Camilla.

Last week I was taking refuge at my dear friends’ house, with their menagerie of beautiful cats inside and spoiled city chickens in the yard. It’s the very house I’d like to live in someday. I want an urban farm with a pollinator garden, raised beds of beautiful tomatoes and too many pets. At Holly and Reese’s house, I get to live vicariously. I wish I was there all the time.

I was afraid there’d be conflict between their cats and McFluff, Adrienne’s guinea pig, who had traveled with us in a car carrier because Adrienne can’t bear to be without him. My friend looked sternly from my pig to her cats and said “Friend! Not food!” but she needn’t have even bothered. The cats regarded McFluff with disgust, and left him alone. He spent the nights in a travel cage with treats and water and two extra people to fuss over him. He spent much of the days in the yard, under the chickens’ old brooding cage, grazing on clover and fresh timothy grass.

Several times a day, the chickens get let out of their coop to run around the yard and eat grasshoppers. I was afraid this would lead to a catastrophe. The two adult hens, Camilla and Carrie, are four times McFluff’s size. Even the four juvenile hens are about twice as big as he is, and juvenile birds are still learning about what things are good to eat. But again, I shouldn’t have worried. Chickens have a natural rat phobia. They tiptoed up to McFluff calmly munching the clover, started at him, and ran away. I don’t even think McFluff noticed they were there.

Early in the morning my first or second day, I woke up to a sound right out of a Warner Brothers cartoon: a chicken carefully annunciating “Book-book-book-BAKAW!”

Chickens are animals that sound like a practical joke. Dogs don’t really say “bow wow” and cats don’t really say “meow.” If a person hid in your yard and made dog and cat noises, you’d know you were being pranked. But chickens really do say “book-book-book-BAKAW!” and when the sound wakes you up in the morning, you half expect it’s a human being imitating a chicken.

I heard the noise and snapped to attention, barely pausing long enough to get my glasses. I ran outside in my pajamas expecting a disaster. In their old house, my friends had lost a chicken to an urban raccoon, a grisly nightmare. I knew Holly had needed to take it easy in the mornings, thanks to her struggles with rheumatoid arthritis. I would rescue the chickens without waking her.

“Book-book-book-BAKAW!” resounded from the coop once more.

“I’m coming!” I cried.

There was no raccoon in the coop. There wasn’t so much as a stray cat, a rat or anything else that would disturb a chicken.

The chickens hopped hopefully over to me, to see if I had any of the frozen sweet corn Holly gives them for treats.

I counted them. There were four juvenile chickens, still in that awkward in between phase where they are neither chicks nor pullets, looking a bit like buzzards. There was Carrie, looking maternal.

Where was Camilla?

Camilla was the chicken who liked to break out of the coop and take herself for a walk on warm sunny mornings like this one. Holly has a lot of fun stories about pursuing Camilla around the neighborhood. But what if she was just hiding in an odd corner of the coop?

The coop has a very high fence and a canvas roof, with the door blocked off by two boards in case the chickens push it open or squeeze through the gap. It is full of fun things for pampered city chickens to play with: a chair and a ladder to climb on, a children’s xylophone to peck and make music. In the back is the egg box, covered with a tie dyed curtain. I couldn’t possibly search the coop from outside. I pushed my way into the door without letting the other hens out.

The flock followed me around the coop, still hoping for frozen sweet corn.

I looked behind the chair and the ladder, and then I lifted the curtain of the egg-laying box.

There was Camilla, glaring at me as if I’d interrupted her on the toilet.

You understand that chickens are descendants of the dinosaurs if you see one glaring at you from the egg box in the early morning.

I squeezed back out of the coop and went inside for coffee.

When Holly got up, I told her about my adventure. She laughed and explained that chickens have a special song they sing to celebrate laying an egg.

“It’s a chicken’s way of saying ‘hey everybody! Check it out! Look at this really cool thing I made!'” she explained.

That afternoon we had omelets, courtesy of Carrie and Camilla.

Now that I’m back in Steubenville, I’m lonesome for the urban farm and the noisy chickens. I can’t wait to go back again.

Image via pixabay

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows and Joys of Mary, and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, visit our donate page.

Previous Post

August 8, 2022

At My Family's Table

Next Post

August 11, 2022 Take it Day by Day

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the name "Daniel" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Chosen one The Lord is my shepherd God is my judge God is my strength