I had thought about calling this, "And then there were none....", but thought better of it because, really, there ARE more than none. So I'll start it this way.
Here goes.
This actually began about a week ago......
Up early and out to the gardens... the beans NEEDED to be picked. You can put them off for just so long. Beans and zucchini are pretty demanding veggies. They will grow to the size of a baseball bat in no time at all. Sometimes, I think the dreaded kudzu of the south is a close relative of zucchini... you can practically watch them grow if you are patient and can stay in one place long enough.
So, on this day the beans AND zucchini required attention. There is something precious and bothersome about the demands the veggies put on me... during these next weeks, there will be no vacation. Pick, pick, pick... process, process, process. Our chest freezer will fill up, and that brings a big smile. As with all good things, there is a cost, and the cost to me is my time.
One of the joys of this whole situation, is that I get to watch and pay attention not just to the picking but to the other entertainments that living out in the country afford me. We used to have 21 chickens. Now, 14 are in the freezer (aaawww). That leaves 5 young hens and 2 elder 'ladies' to watch for fun. The Boy Garden sits over by the Chicken Condo, the smaller movable coop Mr. Wonderful built last summer. We have been keeping the 5 youngsters there until they get big enough to 'know better' so that we can let them out to hunt for bugs and scratch in fresh grass each day to their hearts' content. We are big believers in the concept that 'happy chickens' lay better eggs, and that's what we are after....
So, by some magical intuitive sense, we think NOW is the time that those hens will 'know better', and we decide its time to open the door to the big outdoors. They still will return to the Condo to roost at night (city folk... do you ask: how do they know how to do that???? me, too, when I was a newbie, but that's another story), but the open door gives them the opportunity to go, explore, be happy! I have to be out there picking beans anyway, so I slide the door open.
Nothing.
I take a few steps back and out of the way.
Nothing.
Wait a bit.
Nothing.
OK. I'll go pick beans and just WATCH.
Still.... nothing.
For the next hour, I picked and watched. Watched those silly chickens walk round and round their little Condo coop... walk right up to the opened door, that great wide expanse of No Wall, not even peek out, not even LOOK!
I was amazed that they were not leaping into the freedom they were being offered.
Pick, pick, pick... my basket was getting pretty full.
Whoa... there's one.... she's.... she's..... She is sticking her beak out the door..... wait, wait..... NO, DON'T GO BACK IN!
Ahhhhhhhh, geeze.
Once beans are picked, they are best processed the same day (often I cheat and just refrigerate them until I have enough time or until the weather cools down). Actually, the picking part is rather enjoyable. But this processing part... you have to cut the tips off, clean them up, measure them out (a little over a pound per blanching set), heat up the house with boiling water, chill down the cooling baths with lots of ice, get the bags labeled and set up, use lots and lots and LOTS of water. Luckily, I have a window over my sink, so my chicken observation could continue. 'Round and 'round and round, they went. Every once in a while, one sister would take a wee little peek out the door, and then scurry back in.
I was cooling down my third batch of beans when.... OMG... a beak crossed the threshold, then a head crossed the threshold and did not jerk back.... THEN, OMG again, a neck and chest crossed the threshold.... AND...... YES, a whole bird took that leap of faith out into the great beyond! Talk about excitement. I had to stop to call Mr.W. just to let him know!
Well, if you know chickens (and even if you don't know, now you will), once one crossed over, the rest were not far behind. For the next hour, they went in and out, in and out. The elder "ladies", Rose and Lily have been checking the newbies out the Condo from time to time, and this opened door was an open invitation to COME ON IN! How surprised I was to see them just waltz right in like they owned the place. Actually, they were just checking out the fresh feed that the youngsters get each day. They think it is much much better that the feed in their own coop (...the grass is always greener, I guess). And, Rose and Lily just HAD to deliver a number of pecks to establish who's boss. Soon enough, they too, went out in search of better bugs.
Let's jump to present time.
The newbies are finally comfie with wide open doors. They scurry about in their little set of 5... to the hedgerow where who-knows-what-critter is waiting for some 'chicken nuggets' (not so smart, but you have heard about 'dumb clucks', I am sure), to the creek or 'crick' as they say out here, around and around their coop (don't know why this still is interesting to them)... but, always together, all 5 of them. They know to come back to roost at sundown so we can close them in for the night, safe and sound. In a month or two more, they will start laying eggs.
Saturday, we will be selling 2 of the youngsters to a family whose flock got hit by one of those hedgerow critters. Eventually, Rose and Lily will become a delicious soup or stew. (aaaawwwwwwwwww)
And then, there will be three.
Three for EGGS....... very happy eggs!
