Clever Chicks

by Rebecca Johnson

  Abbey picked Rhody up from the box at her feet. As the chick’s little head brushed against her cheek a tear dropped onto it. Abbey was not normally the kind of girl who cried a lot, but she was already feeling so upset about Pepper and the other horses, and this was all too much.

  ‘I just can’t understand how anyone can bear to let that happen,’ said Hannah, as they sat at morning tea. A feeling of despair had followed them and settled around their table.

  ‘It’s just not right,’ said Clare.

  ‘Does Mrs Bristow use eggs from caged hens?’ asked Bonnie. ‘I know the school has chooks, but there wouldn’t be enough for all of us.’

  ‘That’s true,’ said Talika. ‘There are sixty boarders here and if we all have eggs for breakfast, we’d need 120 eggs. Chooks can only lay one egg a day, and there is no way we would have 120 chickens at the school.’

  ‘And Mr McPhail said a lot of our chooks are getting too old to lay, which is why Mrs Parry is helping us raise new chicks,’ said Hannah.

  The girls’ heads all got closer and closer together and their voices dropped to a whisper. Mrs Bristow wasn’t near them, but she had a habit of appearing out of nowhere.

  ‘So I wonder what type of eggs we’re eating?’ said Clare, pushing the last of her custard tart around her plate with suspicion.

  Everyone shrugged.

  ‘I bags not asking her,’ said Hannah.

  Abbey had been resting her chin on her hands but suddenly sat up straight. ‘I know how we could find out,’ she said.

  She pushed her chair back and walked over to scrape her plate into the scraps bucket, then looked into the recycling bin. As plain as the nose on her face, there were dozens of boxes in there labelled ‘cage eggs’. On a better day, Abbey might have stopped first. But today, she felt beaten and just couldn’t bear the thought of any more sadness to do with animals.

  She walked up to Mrs Bristow and held an empty egg carton out in front of her. ‘Excuse me, Mrs Bristow,’ she said quietly. ‘Do you realise the chickens that laid these eggs are confined to a space no bigger than a piece of A4 paper for their whole lives?’

  Mrs Bristow stopped wiping the bench and glared at her. Everyone sensed the tension in the room. You could hear a pin drop.

  ‘And this cruelty continues because people keep buying their eggs,’ said Abbey. ‘So I’m asking you politely, would you be prepared to stop please . . . for the sake of the chickens?’

  Mrs Bristow was clearly taken aback, and she didn’t like being put on the spot one little bit. Unlike Abbey, she didn’t speak quietly, instead she decided to make a great show of it.

  ‘Well, you lot manage to scoff about thirty cartons a week without complaint!’ she said, looking around the room. ‘I saw you shovelling a double helping down your throat yesterday, Abbey Mason!’

  ‘But I didn’t know yesterday,’ said Abbey, suddenly feeling as though she may be ill.

  ‘Well, you know now!’ boomed Mrs Bristow. ‘And you’re going to continue to know, because my budget doesn’t allow for fancypants eggs laid by chickens in palaces, and I make all the decisions about what I use to cook in my kitchen. I simply don’t get enough eggs from the school chickens to make do.’ Mrs Bristow picked up her broom and made a great show of turning her back on Abbey while she swept the floor.

  Abbey could feel herself getting really angry. Ms Sterling’s advice was swirling in her head. Be respectful. Be polite.

  It wasn’t getting her anywhere.

  The bell rang and the girls pushed out their chairs and began to leave the hall. They stared silently at Abbey as they flowed past. She stared at Mrs Bristow’s back and seethed.

  ‘Come on, Ab,’ said Hannah. ‘You tried your best.’ She took her friend by the arm and led her away.

  ‘We have to stop it,’ said Talika as she caught up with them. ‘I just worked it out on my calculator app. If our school goes through thirty cartons of eggs a week, for say forty weeks of the school year, that’s 1200 cartons of eggs! Which equals . . .’ she paused as she punched in a few more numbers, ‘14,400 eggs laid by chickens living in a metal prison!’

  That afternoon, there was a rumour going around amongst the Vet Cadets. A rumour anout a secret meeting in room 12A – Abbey, Talika and Hannah’s room – half an hour after lights out. No one else was allowed to know.

  The girls brushed their teeth and showered in record time.

  ‘My, my,’ said Miss Beckett as she walked down the hall. ‘You girls are quick to bed tonight. I might get to finish my novel after all.’

  ‘We’re all just so tired from raising our chickens,’ said Clare, yawning. ‘Being a mother is hard work.’

  Miss Beckett smiled and continued on her rounds.

  Right on cue, exactly half an hour after lights out, there was a soft tap on the door. Hannah cracked it open; Milly, Bonnie and Daisy were there, and within minutes, the room was filled with all nine of the year seven Vet Cadet boarders.

  The light was out, but Abbey had placed a torch on the floor in the centre of the carpet. The girls sat or stood wherever they could find a space, no one daring to speak, until the door was closed behind them. The torch lit their faces and made eerie shadows across the room, which made the meeting feel even more secret.

  ‘We’ve all seen the video about the caged chickens,’ whispered Hannah, ‘and we all know how Mrs Bristow reacted when Abbey tried to talk to her about it.’

  Everyone nodded.

  ‘Our school is using at least 14,000 eggs a year,’ said Talika. ‘Many of them caged eggs.’ The girls all murmured their disgust.

  ‘Mrs Bristow said that we were happy to scoff them without complaint,’ said Hannah, ‘so we’ve decided to change that. We’d like to ask you to join us in a silent protest. A protest to stop eating the caged eggs until a change is made.’

  ‘Just politely decline any eggs,’ said Talika. ‘Hopefully, when Mrs Bristow has huge amounts of eggs left over, she will get the message.’

  The girls all started to whisper excitedly. Abbey knew it was a great plan, and one that surely couldn’t get them into any trouble . . . she hoped.

  There was a tap at the door and everyone froze.

  ‘Hannah,’ whispered Elizabeth from the other side of the door.

  Everyone looked at Hannah. Nobody moved.

  ‘Hannah!’ This whisper was louder.

  Silence.

  The door handle turned. There was no point even trying to hide nine girls. They were caught.

  Elizabeth’s jaw dropped when her eyes had adjusted to the light and she realised how many girls were in the room.

  ‘What on earth?’ she said, more loudly than was necessary.

  ‘Shhh!’ said Hannah.

  ‘Don’t you shush me,’ snapped her sister. ‘As school captain, I could report every one of you, and you’d be doing Saturday detentions for a month.’

  ‘We’re having a meeting about eggs,’ said Abbey.

  ‘That’s why I came to see you, Hannah,’ said Elizabeth. ‘To tell you girls to stop causing problems with Mrs Bristow. Disrespect is not acceptable at this school. I thought I’d talk to you first instead of reporting you to Ms Sterling, but now I see I’ve caught you getting into more trouble.’

  ‘Oh, thank you so much,’ said Hannah, sarcastically. ‘It just so happens that Abbey was totally respectful. The problem’s that Mrs Bristow’s not. Have you seen the film on caged hens, Elizabeth?’

  All the girls in the room looked from one sister to the other as the pair glared at each other across the dimly lit room.

  ‘Have you?’ hissed Hannah through her teeth. ‘Mrs Parry said she’s shown it to every group who has come through the school. Has your year level seen it?’

  Elizabeth nodded, very slightly, but enough to be seen.

  Talika spoke up. ‘Elizabeth, we are really not trying to cause trouble. We’re just choosing not to eat caged eggs. Surely that isn’t against the school rules?’

  Elizabeth
said nothing, but continued to glare at her little sister. Eventually she opened the door to the hallway and left.

  ‘Will she tell?’ said Clare, nervously.

  ‘I guess we’ll know in the morning,’ sighed Hannah.

  The girls got up early because they were all anxious about the day ahead. Today was probably the day they’d find out if their horses were sick, and if they’d have Saturday detention for a month.

  They decided to spend some time with their chicks before breakfast. All three of their babies were getting really good at coming to the girls when they heard the clicker.

  ‘I want to try Rhody on shapes,’ said Abbey, placing a square on the table in front of her little chick. They had cut the lettuce into tiny pieces and mixed some with scrambled egg.

  ‘Try putting a little bit of egg on the square and click when she pecks it,’ said Talika.

  The chicks loved the new treat the girls had prepared, so Rhody was very happy to keep pecking at the square each time a speck of egg was put on it and the clicker sounded.

  ‘Maybe if we make the treat smaller and smaller, and keep making the sound, she will eventually peck the square just when she hears the sound, even without any food. That’s when you should let her have one quick peck from the egg in the dish, so that she learns that if she pecks the square, she will get a treat.’

  It was amazing how quickly Rhody caught on. They practised with her for a few minutes, then put her back in the cage to rest while Aussie and Poopy had their turns.

  ‘So next time we practise, we should put the other shapes down and only reward her when she pecks the square,’ said Abbey.

  They looked at the clock. It was time for breakfast.

  ‘I’m not looking forward to seeing my sister,’ whispered Hannah, as they made their way towards the dining hall.

  ‘We’re having bacon and eggs,’ said Milly, nervously, when the girls sat down at the table.

  Abbey looked over at Mrs Bristow, who stared back with a smirk on her face. She called the first table over to collect their food. The seniors lined up to be served, Elizabeth was at the head of the line.

  When May went to place a fried egg on the plate, Elizabeth politely said, ‘No, thank you,’ and kept moving.

  So did the next girl, and the next.

  Abbey squeezed Hannah’s arm. ‘Look what’s happening,’ she whispered, nodding towards the long line of girls leaving the servery without eggs on their plates.

  Hannah stopped talking to Milly and they both looked over. A hush gradually engulfed the room as everyone realised what was happening. Each individual girl’s voice in the queue politely said, ‘No, thank you.’

  The year elevens followed suit, and then the tens. It went on and on. Not a single egg had been taken.

  May looked confused, Hannah looked elated. Mrs Bristow looked furious.

  ‘I know what you’re doing!’ she bellowed, as the huge tray of fried eggs remained piled high. ‘And I know who started this rubbish!’ The furious dining hall supervisor threw down her apron and stormed out of the kitchen. It didn’t take a genius to guess where she was heading.

  As soon as she was gone the girls cheered and high-fived each other. Hannah’s and Elizabeth’s eyes met across the room and they smiled. Hannah gave her big sister the thumbs up.

  Abbey, Talika and Hannah were in their maths lesson when the call that they’d been expecting came through. What they hadn’t expected was that Elizabeth was also summoned to Ms Sterling’s office, and when they went in, Mrs Parry was seated to the right of Ms Sterling.

  ‘So, girls,’ said Ms Sterling, ‘I believe you feel very strongly about something?’

  Abbey looked at Mrs Parry and nodded.

  ‘You’ve certainly made your point this morning. I’ve had to send Mrs Bristow home as she’s very worked up about it.’

  ‘We weren’t rude,’ said Talika, ‘or impolite, just as you said.’

  ‘I actually don’t have a problem with what you have done to demonstrate your passion,’ said the principal.

  Abbey heard Elizabeth sigh with relief.

  ‘However, what I would like to know is have you thought this through? It’s one thing to identify a problem, but another entirely to come up with a workable solution.’

  The girls all nodded.

  ‘So, I’ve asked Mrs Bristow what the cost difference is between buying cage eggs for the school and free range, and she says it would be about $2400 a year. Do you have any idea where we might get the extra money for this? Mrs Bristow assures me she can’t fund it with her budget.’

  ‘Could we have a fundraiser?’ said Elizabeth. ‘I’d be happy to organise it.’

  ‘And I’d be happy to assist,’ said Mrs Parry.

  ‘We would love to help,’ said Hannah as her friends nodded excitedly.

  ‘Well,’ said Ms Sterling, ‘it looks like we have a committee forming. Let me know when you have an idea of what type of event you’ll hold. I’ll speak to Mrs Bristow about it.’

  When they left the principal’s office, Hannah hugged her sister. ‘I can’t believe it! Thank you, Elizabeth,’ she said. ‘You should have seen all the eggs left in the tray, Mrs Parry.’

  ‘I can only imagine,’ laughed Mrs Parry. ‘To be honest, I’ve been trying to get the school’s policy on free range produce changed for years. You’re a special group of girls. You really are. Thank you. Let’s all meet in my classroom after school and come up with some ideas,’ said Mrs Parry.

  Abbey suddenly became very serious. ‘I guess it depends on what’s happening with our horses,’ she said.

  The girls gave Mrs Parry an update on the situation.

  ‘Oh Han,’ said Elizabeth, giving her sister a hug. ‘I had no idea it was so bad. Why didn’t you tell me?’

  ‘You didn’t exactly look like you’d care,’ said Hannah, quietly.

  At morning tea, Elizabeth came down to the stables with them to see if there was any news.

  ‘Nothing yet,’ said Mr McPhail when he saw them. ‘Apparently the lab where the samples are being tested is backed up because two staff are away sick.’

  ‘How much longer can this go on?’ groaned Abbey.

  ‘Are the horses okay?’ said Elizabeth.

  ‘They seem fine,’ said Mr McPhail. ‘Dr Brown has been out again this morning to check on them. They seem to be getting through all of the feed I’m sending over. I imagine they’re a bit bored though.’

  ‘How’s Drover?’ said Talika.

  ‘Sick of being locked up at home,’ said the teacher. ‘I bought him a huge bone to take his mind off it.’

  When the four girls met Mrs Parry after school, there were lots of other students in the classroom working with their chicks.

  ‘Hey everyone, look at this!’ said Bonnie. Her chick, Chirpy, was standing in front of a row of six small boxes sticky taped together. Each box had a hole cut into it about twice the size of her chick’s head. Bonnie popped some food into the fourth box, while her chick watched. Bonnie clicked the clicker and the chick walked straight up and found the treat in the box and gobbled it up.

  ‘Do you always put it in the fourth box?’ said Milly, not sounding all that impressed.

  ‘Yes,’ said Bonnie, smiling. ‘But watch this.’

  She turned the boxes around so they now faced the other direction and the chick was behind them. She clicked her clicker and the chick dashed straight around to the side with the holes and looked into the fourth box for her treat.

  ‘It’s like she can count!’ laughed Clare.

  ‘They say chickens have really good memories, and can even understand that something still exists, even if they can’t see it,’ said Mrs Parry.

  Hannah showed Elizabeth how Aussie could peck the square, even if she jumbled the shapes up on the table in front of her.

  ‘You know,’ Elizabeth said, ‘I think I have an idea.’ She turned to Mrs Parry. ‘Do you think the little chicks would handle being at a shopping centre or somewhere
in public for a few hours?’

  Mrs Parry thought for a moment. ‘I guess as long as we take the heat boxes, and the chicks are only on display for two or three minutes at a time and allowed plenty of rest, they will be okay. I wouldn’t like seeing them handed around or anything.’

  ‘What are you thinking, Elizabeth?’ asked Hannah.

  Elizabeth smiled and walked over to the whiteboard. Then, in large writing, she wrote, ‘CHICKS DOING TRICKS’.

  Everyone chattered excitedly.

  ‘We take the Vet Cadets and the chicks to the shopping centre on Saturday,’ explained Elizabeth. ‘As people pass by, you girls demonstrate how clever your chicks are and what they can do. Then off to the side we have a noticeboard showing pictures of hens in cages. We need to make people understand that these aren’t just dumb creatures that can be ignored.’

  ‘That could work,’ said Mrs Parry. ‘You catch people’s attention as they’re just about to buy eggs, to make them think twice about which ones they choose.’

  ‘Can we please do it?’ said Abbey. ‘Rhody would love an outing!’

  ‘It’s a great idea, but it’s not really going to solve the school’s problem with eggs though,’ said Hannah.

  They all nodded and went back to thinking.

  ‘I’ve got it!’ said Talika. ‘What if we wrote a letter and sent it home to the parents of each girl explaining the situation and asking them to adopt a chicken for the school? Each girl can name their chicken and help care for it. We could have a photoboard in the dining hall with each girl and her chook. Some parents might even pitch in to help build a bigger coop.’

  ‘That’s a great idea. Then instead of raising the money to buy free range eggs, the chickens would be able to supply the school kitchen with all the eggs they need,’ said Elizabeth. ‘I’m certain our parents would be happy to adopt a couple of chooks.’