Mother Hen

BY AMBER SMITH

Upstate physical therapist Caterina

Flatau grew up watching “The Waltons” and “Little House on the Prairie,” television programs that depicted life during the Great Depression and late 1800s, respectively. “I always loved that simplicity,” she says.

She thought about raising chickens. The pandemic created the perfect time to embark on such a project.

Flatau bought a coop and brown wooden henhouse with a green roof and put it beneath trees in her backyard in Fayetteville. Her husband, Ralph, enlarged the coop. A red E, two G’s and an S decorate the side of the henhouse. They doubled the coop wire in spots for more security. The wire extends into the ground to discourage predators from digging under.

Flatau estimates spending 10 to 15 minutes per day caring for the chickens, giving them fresh water and feed, cleaning their living space and collecting their eggs. All four of her remaining chickens – one was killed by a neighborhood husky in late spring – are named Twila, after Flatau’s favorite character on “Schitt’s Creek,” a television series that helped her laugh during the stress of the pandemic. Among them, they produce three or four eggs per day.

Around midday, she lets the chickens out of their coop. They roam the yard, eating bugs and grass. She finds it relaxing to watch them wander. They mostly stay together. On hot afternoons, they huddle in the shade against the house. They have their favorite spots.

“They’re such a joy,” Flatau says.

But in July, she found a new home for the chickens where they could continue their free ranges lives. “I have new neighbors with new dogs, and I want the dogs to live their best lives enjoying the space,” she said, “but I also want my girls to be safe.” u