New Girls In The Neighborhood!

For some reason I just love having chickens. My dad had chickens as a matter of neccessity when young and I like to think I inheirited my fondness for anything chicken from him.  Chickens have been on our acreage for the past 26 years.  As I calculate that number, and recalculate, and recalculate it over and over in my mind I cannot believe it has been that long.  Goodness, it has.  When our daughter was just 8 she began her profitable little egg business.  Profitable because we bought the hens, the feed, the supplies, and she kept all the money from ‘her’ egg business.  To her credit she was a faithful little worker and so proud of her birds. Sweet memories. Gradually our boys had hens, roosters, turkeys, pheasants, chicks, ducks, geese, incubators, fluffy-legged hens, and even hens with Lyle Lovett hairstyles. The whole gammit of poultry spent time under our barn roof.  But the heavy, dark-colored egg layers have always been my favorite.  Our hens winter in the barn with a light on  24 hours from mid-October through the middle of April.  The rest of the year the hens are in their airy, roomy, sun-filled summer house.  Our hens have lived longer than most hens ever do because they are spoiled. My husband keeps a shovel in the summer hen-house and as soon as he begins to turn over a spade full of soil the hens are hopping on the edge of the shovel hoping to catch that first worm.  When we approach their door they rush up and wait to see what we bring. The hens never even think about leaving the henhouse when the door is open. They just wait for their treat.  Tomatoes, cantalope seeds, even grasshoppers make them happy.  Our egg production has dropped way, way, down because our hens or so old. We love fresh eggs for our own home-made pasta and bread, for sharing with our kids, for boiled egg whites for snacking, and for egg white sandwiches.  Most egg yolks have about 5 grams of saturated fat per yolk. When your saturated fat intake is only 7% of your daily calorie intake that is a great deal. We try and eat no saturated fat if at all possible.  A recent study from the University of Wisconsin – Madison noted that most cage-free, fresh-air hens who are fed no animal by-products produce yolks with as little as 1 gram of saturated fat per yolk.  We think our hens fit into this category but we still avoid yolks most of the time.  A few weeks ago we went to an area flea market and brought home three gorgeous young hens. These dark brown egg layers are close to laying so we are waiting expectantly for their first offerings.  The new young girls have perked up the senior residents of our hen house and after a few ruffled feathers everyone is getting along just fine.  We are so thankful our kids started us on the path of raising poultry for our own fresh eggs from happy, happy, hens.  Thanks, kids!