The chicken business was making good money so we expanded the chicken business and now had chickens in the long shed that had originally been built as a cow shed. When chickens were old and not laying good, you sold them and replaced them with baby chicks. A few days before Kent was born, Orville Wylie came all alone, with the truck and crates to haul away the chickens. He thought Jess or some of the boys would be there to help him. Usually they brought two men to help empty a coop. Jess was busy getting ready to dig spuds and the boys were in school. I had no choice except to help him.
The chickens were caught with a wire hook. The person catching would make a quick snag as a chicken ran by. The snagging wasn’t any problem but being nine months pregnant was. Each of the 800 chicken caught had to be loosened from the hook and lifted to a crate. I caught and crated my full share, while Orville carried them to the truck. It was hot and I was wet with perspiration, we didn’t even quit for lunch. He was as anxious to finish as I was. Years later he was still telling people about that day.
I think Steve and Lee had the hardest job. The chickens roosted on 2x6 boards that were over wire netting. The dropping under each roost had to be cleaned out regularly. We didn’t have any mechanical way to do it. On the bottom floor we could back the manure spreader in to load it and haul it out. On the other two floors we had to carry each shovel full to the west door and throw it out. If you didn’t keep coops clean the ammonia smell was terrible, plus you always had a fly problem. We hired Elsie Hill’s two oldest boys to come on Saturdays to help Steve and Lee but our boys worked the hardest and did the bulk of the work One of the hardest things for Jess to do was shovel. The motion across his chest shut off his breathing.
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