“Outch! Hey, take care, you! Chickens don’t eat people, didn’t you know that!” In response, she looks at me sharply, her head a little crooked to look up.

The chickens consider me a cross between a super chicken with 3 heads and a giant worm. That insight suddenly came to me through the behavior of one of them when I brought them their sliced cabbage.

Chickens are omnivores. They’re very fond of grass and green stuff, but they will never neglect a worm or an insect

The three hens have no name. No use, they are so much alike as Huey, Dewey and Louie. It is clear that one of them is the stupidest. There’s always that with sisters – one is the wussy who just doesn’t understand it all.

But this one, right in front of me isn’t her! She walks like a tiger past the gate of her cage – while her sisters are already scratching and pecking – to grab a bite from me. I’m quite entertained by her behaviour (as a chicken whisperer in training), and felt safe – well protected by the wire.

Sometimes it’s really like feeding tigers. I have to lift the cage to slide the tray underneath. We hadn’t thought about a hatch or a door during the design and the-making-of. Doesn’t matter, you can lift it a bit as well. Now I have to expose my fingers to those three sharp beaks. A chicken beak can be quite painful, and it gives a startle reflex that is difficult to control.

I tried to point out what is going on behind her, but she only responds to the sight of my finger. “Yum! I haven’t had meat in days ”, I see her thinking. “What a wonderfully tasty fat thick worm! I’ve never seen them float through the air, but what does it matter? ”

That that nice fat fat worm is attached to me, apparently doesn’t occur to Madam Chicken. They can go free in the morning when I’m weeding the vegetable garden. When I walk on slippers, I have to watch out that I come home with all my toes intact.

Especially when I have applied red nail polish. Then they think something like: “Wow! A red-headworm! A delicacy!”

It’s very soothing to have chickens. We have good conversations, we have a good time together; they murmle something about the grass here or there; I talk about Life.

I highly recommend it!  Every sombre fellow human being one or more chickens, and you can leave your antidepressants for what they are.