Monday, January 11, 2010

Away On Vacation


The in-laws are away on vacation for a few days so its just the hubs, myself and my middle Brother-in-law here on the ranch. While they have been away, S. feeds the chickens and gathers the eggs at the end of each day. He is in town tonight so we took care of the chore and these are what I gathered tonight. I love going in there and looking in all the nests to see how many eggs there are and what colors they will be.
Because I've been a town girl all my life, I never thought much about chickens, how eggs were made, how many eggs each hen laid, and so on. When we first moved out here I was grossed out by the eggs. Now I actually knew where my eggs were coming from and what some of them were covered in. Yes, I knew that eggs came from chickens, but you never think of it when you're picking them up in the store all nicely cleaned and packaged in their cartons.
Since then, I have learned quite a bit about chickens and what it takes to raise and care for them, with many laughs from my husband and brothers-in-law. I even found out that each hen only lays one egg a day. Silly town girl thinking that a chicken laid multiple eggs a day!
These days it doesn't bother me to go out and gather the eggs and feed the chickens, I've even become accustomed to them. All it takes is a little bit of warm soapy water and a gentle scrub and they're ready to use. My MIL does the majority of the cleaning, feeding, and general care for them and we only fill in when she's not home. She has a great section on her blog, Gumbo-Lily, about raising and taking care of your own chickens.
I encourage you to read up on them and even give raising them a try if you have the time and space.

2 comments:

Gumbo Lily said...

Love this picture! Thanks for taking care of the "girls" for me while I was away.

Jody

Melanie Schu said...

I'm so city too! I had no idea that they only laide one egg a day. I guess I just figured with as many eggs as I see in stores, a few plopped out a time. Guess not.
You live, you learn.