|
As all of you know who read my blog, I like to buy Local. I also like fresh yard eggs. As you also know, I have been on the hunt for a reliable source of fresh eggs. All my friends chickens are either molting or on strike right now. Everyone that I usually buy eggs from is experiencing this technical difficulty with supplying me with eggs. Wednesday, Lalonni scored some from a lady friend of hers and shared a couple of dozen with me as a gift. I am showing you the picture because they are so pretty. No, nothing is wrong with my camera. Some of them really are green and blue. I have even seen some rose and pink ones from our chickens in the past as well as Khaki. These eggs make me feel so nostalgic. The eggs had the same effect on Sister Bear. When Baby Bear sees this picture I expect the same reaction from her. Back when my girls were little....and not so little ...we had chickens. When we moved to our farm (i.e. petting zoo) in the country, there were 78 chickens Ms. Judith was trying to sell. She was so thrilled to find out I wanted them. Unknown to her was the fact that I had been wanting chickens for quite some time. They were a part of my history. She gave them to me and she was so happy that her "girls" were going to be able to stay on the farm. My little ladies promptly named every one of those chickens. I still remember Jazz, Cowboy, Black Betty, Bully, Lady Hawk,Cowman, Skittles, Vanessa(born...hatched later), Peep(our first baby on the farm,snowflake,Lucy.........well you get the idea. Those memories are so precious to me. The chickens had been there alone for about a month so they were pretty much accustomed to roosting where they wanted. This included the porches. So we penned them. The first Sunday we were there, we were getting dressed for church. I looked out of the window and there went Bully running across the yard with his household of hens. Strange thing was, they were the only ones that managed to escape the confines of the pen.The roosters had fought valiantly for their hens and each rooster had staked out his household of hens. And now Bully had managed to free his women. Sister Bear, Baby Bear and I went running outside in the drizzling rain to capture and return them to their pen. It had been raining a few days and everything was so muddy. We had alot less grass and brush back then due to the free ranging chickens. Besides, it was November. By the time Bully and his women were captured the girls and I looked like we had been mud wrestling. We actually had been Mud wrestling with our chickens . We quickly showered and still made it to Sunday School looking no worse for our experience.
Or there was the time I cut my eye on the knife tree trying to scarf the eggs the hens had laid under it. We have Yucca bushes someone planted before we moved in. I call them knife trees because that is what they are. I was reaching under there to get the eggs and cut my eye and my arm. I learned the hard way what a Yucca bush is made of. Some of our hens managed to escape every day so the girls and I gathered eggs in the henhouse and under bushes and........ Our hens were always free range in those days whether we wished it that way or not. We at least tried to keep them penned at night so they would lay in the henhouse before they went roaming around.
Just after we first penned the hens they stopped laying. I guess it was a forced molt from what I was reading. I called my Granddaddy Senn and reported the problem. He told me this "every year, just about the time you need lots of eggs for your dressing and cakes at Thanksgiving, the hens stop laying. In a few weeks when the days start to get longer they will lay." Sure enough, Dec. 25th, we got one egg. The next day 3 and after that our refrigerator could not hold them all and I started selling them. Another time when they would not lay in the summer my Granny Senn said" You've got too many roosters bothering the hens, get some of those roosters on the table. When your hens get happy, they will lay." She was right. We separated the roosters and the hens began to lay. Another time when they went on strike, my Granddaddy Senn told me to "mix a cornmeal mush with some cayenne pepper." That worked too. They quickly began to lay.
We had to have separate pens with a rooster and a few hens because those teenage roosters would really bother the hens. We even lost a hen to this nonsense! But that is a story for another day.
My daughters have actually watched a hen lay an egg. I MEAN UP REAL CLOSE! In my mind'e eye I can still see them with their rubber boots on traipsing around in the chicken pen. They spent many happy hours with those chickens. If I only knew then what I know now............... I would not take anything for the fact that they were raised in the country. I am so thankful God created us with a memory. It is the only way for a Mommy to keep her little girls forever. While I have some very painful memories that can make me cry in a flash, I have some beautiful ones captured in this weather beaten mind of mine. I have some that are bittersweet as well.
Yesterday, I met Ms. Lenora. She is pictured in this post with her basket as she just finished gathering the eggs. I bought six dozen. I spent some time there with Ms. Lenora. She is very nice and she loves those chickens. She even buys collards for them. I really enjoyed meeting her. There is nothing quite as relaxing to me as watching a hen happily scratching in the dirt for bugs. She does not have a care in the world. I also met an older gentleman yesterday by the name of Mr. Boone. He is 76. He is retired military. He is full of knowledge. I picked his brain about gardening. He doesn't mind sharing . I enjoyed making his aquaintance as well.
I have included some pictures of the chickens so you can get an idea of what my definition is of "free range". Not to mention the fact that I just love chickens!
This week end should be a full one. I had planned to go and hear my Daddy sing and play but he is taking his horse camping so that plan has been canceled. When the sun goes down on Saturday ,I expect we will rearrange our garage. Then on Sunday we will work at the Farm all day. God willing that is our plan. Work usually helps with my funk. I am hopeful that will be the case this time. You know, idle hands are the devils workshop or something like that.........
Cheers everyone!
|
Posted by