a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Author: theMan

  • King Richard Dances Under the Plum Tree

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    King Richard has found a spot, perfect for him, under the blooming plum tree. You can see him scratch and roll around in the dirt in the clip below.
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    Watch him dance below and swing his comb and waddles from side to side. Roosters are the masters of bling. Are the hens behind him impressed? It’s hard to tell. I’m impressed, but I’m not a hen. They seem to be more interested in finding things to eat, though I think they find him amusing. Hens enjoy having a rooster around. It’s astonishing, but 99.99999999% of all egg laying hens never see a rooster, and yet, the essence of laying an egg is about love. Being able to flirt with roosters and tease them is an integral part of creating an egg. Do hens who have roosters to flirt with produce better eggs? Maybe not. But it does make their lives and their eggs more complete.

    Is it the plum blossoms that are making King Richard dance with joy? It could be. He’s like a dancing Monet painting.

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  • To Lay a Good Egg Demands Beauty

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    You might not think that chickens need cherry blossoms to lay a good egg, but they do. Chickens have eyes designed to see more colors than we can. Housing them in drab housing without being able to see the blue sky or shimmering cherry blossoms, is beneath their dignity. Chickens need surroundings full of beauty. Their extraordinary eyesight demands it.

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    MiasasEggThis is MiAsa-Hime美朝姫and the egg she laid today. She comes across as poised and gentle, but of all the hens, she has a voice that drowns out all others.
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    NijiHimesEggNiji-Hime虹姫is one of the Americauna orphans we got last spring. When another hen tries to sit in her nest, she lets out a dinosaur screech that makes your blood curdle. She even hunkers down, like a lizard waiting to pounce.
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    UngetsuHimeseggAnd this is elegant Ungetsu-Hime雲月姫 and the egg she laid today. She’s changed nests. Hens do that. They’ll use one nest for awhile, and then get bored with it, and switch to another. Chickens need variety. They need to be able to stretch out in a sunny patch of dirt, watch the cherry blossoms flutter in the wind, and follow the petals as they float down to the ground. You can’t have good eggs without endless beauty to entertain the hens.

  • Elegant Tangerine

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    Some hens are so elegant. Tangerine is such a hen. The coloring on her neck feathers make it look like she’s wearing a fringed cape. Her stylish comb gives her a touch of class. So if you ever buy some of my eggs, either at Tweets Café, or at Slough Food, or from me, and see “Tangerine” written on the egg, this is the hen which laid that egg. When you cook and serve one of her eggs, put it in a beautiful dish. Tangerine’s eggs deserve the finest china.

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  • Art Happens Despite What We Do

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    An art installation isn’t the intention when we trim a maple tree. But the jumble of branches and twigs does look like an art installation destined for a museum. I could see art critics pondering the meaning of all these branches and twigs, with some pontificating on the significance of that branch being on top of this branch.

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    One thing worth pondering is the beauty of lichen. Some consider lichen to be a miniature ecosystem. They are complex structures of fungi, algae and cyanobacteria, and even more participants. Since they are the first things to colonize exposed rock and growing trees, it’s estimated according to Johnson R. Haas and O. William Purvis in Lichen biogeochemistry that they cover 6% the Earth’s land surface.

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    The thimble berries are starting to put on their annual art show. It starts with delicate pink flowers, followed by blood red berries in early summer. It’s an art show worth following. In unfolds beautifully and in the end you get to eat the art show.

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  • Protecting Her Eggs

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    Buttercup lets out her inner dinosaur to protect her eggs. It’s too bad that hens don’t have hands. If they did, they could write novels, code apps, knit booties, all sorts of things while they wait for their eggs to hatch.