Pages

▼

Monday, December 3, 2012

Round is Beautiful

There's been a 180° turn (that's half a circle!) in Our Sad Chicken Tale.

From L. to R., these eggs were laid by Temple Grayhen (Light Brahma), Whoopie Goldbird and Oprah Wingfree (Black Australorps), Gyspsy (greeen) and Esmerelda (old Easter Eggers), and the tiny one by Amelia Egghart (the new, runt Easter Egger).  Thank you, girls!
We were hardly getting any eggs from the older hens this fall.  I know lots of people butcher them when that happens, but I just can't.  Gypsy and Esmerelda were two of my very first hens, and Grace (the remaining Naked Neck), Kiwi, and Sparrow were from the next batch.  All of these hens survived the fox, and I can't take their lives.  They've earned their retirement!

On October 8, we got our first egg from a young hen.  I could tell because it was a dark brown, rounder egg than we usually get, and it had a spot of blood on it, something that often happens with a hen's first egg.  OUCH!

By October 19, all four young hens were laying.  Then one day, there were five eggs, then six, then seven.  Soon we were getting 5-7 eggs a day every day, and I realized that the young hens seemed to have started a new fall fashion:  Lay Eggs!  Grace and Kiwi are clearly molting, but everyone else is busy laying.  Perhaps they heard how much the price of feed has gone up and figured they'd better quit slacking!

Several hours after I took the egg photo, I looked out and saw a beautiful moon, just one night down from the full moon.



My tripod broke as I tried to set it up so it was a bit wobbly with a telephoto lens on top, but I refused to be deterred and finally managed to capture the moon along with one of the two bright stars nearby.  I'm into photography, not astronomy, so don't ask me which star it was!  Unfortunately, my photo doesn't begin to convey the beauty of a full moon in a clear sky flanked by brightly twinkling stars on a frosty night.

Humble, earthly eggs and glorious celestial bodies--what a marvelous Creation God has given us to enjoy!
at

8 comments:

  1. bcDecember 3, 2012 at 9:43 AM

    That looks like one awesome breakfast in the making.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SusanDecember 3, 2012 at 2:58 PM

    No kidding, Brent, especially with home-cured and smoked bacon raised in our pasture! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 3, 2012 at 6:01 PM

    I'm no photographer (sigh) or astronomer (tho J. and I keep trying to ID the celestial bodies!) but I did see this on the news-- http://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-and-jupiter-out-all-night-long-on-november-28 --drumroll and the answer is . . . Jupiter! . . . . Also, I like the comparison in your last sentence! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 4, 2012 at 9:52 AM

    Hey Susan, you may have to do a post about the home-cured and smoked bacon, that sounds good. I can't wait until I can get my own breakfest on our farm.

    Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SusanDecember 4, 2012 at 10:10 AM

      Ha! Beat you to it, Gordon! Here are the posts I've done:

      http://zephyrhillfarm.blogspot.com/2011/12/curing-bacon-home-made-curing-salt.html

      http://zephyrhillfarm.blogspot.com/2011/12/smoking-hot-bacon-on-freezing-cold.html

      http://zephyrhillfarm.blogspot.com/2011/12/accidental-ham.html

      This last one is more general, but includes some comments on curing and smoking:
      http://zephyrhillfarm.blogspot.com/2012/01/looking-back-things-weve-done-right.html

      This is why I love Labels, otherwise I wouldn't be able to remember where to look for a certain post!

      I know you will be thrilled beyond measure when you have your first farm breakfast that you raised and produced. There is just nothing like it! Farming is a lot of work, but the paybacks are so great! Hey, I think I just got my next New Year's post idea! :) Thanks for getting me going!

      Delete
  5. Jamie {See Jamie blog}December 15, 2012 at 3:08 PM

    My youngest would be the happiest girl ever if we had chickens (she wants to be egg collector) but my older girl would have nothing to do with them because she was attacked by a chicken when she was little (even had to have emergency plastic surgery to repair the damage!). But I'd still be delighted to have them if our county would allow it; currently the law says we can't unless we have a certain number of acres

    ReplyDelete
  6. SusanDecember 15, 2012 at 3:14 PM

    Jamie, I don't blame your daughter for being scared after being attacked! What happened to her is horrible! Both of our former (note that word!) roosters started attacking me, and one of our two current ones got our adult daughter the other day when she was feeding for us. He scratched her leg through her pants! He has a date with a sharp knife and a pot full of wine and vegetables! Any aggressive animals on our farm get EATEN! :)

    Silly county! Many municipalities all over the U.S. are even allowing up to 4 chickens in a backyard, just no roosters.

    ReplyDelete
  7. SusanDecember 15, 2012 at 3:16 PM

    P.S., Jamie, you beat me to it! But thank you for braving the Captcha--and it's gone now! My gift of appreciation to my faithful few commenters!

    ReplyDelete

I LOVE comments so please take a minute and let me know you were here! Sorry I have to use Captcha, but I hope you'll comment anyway! Comments make my day! :)