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Author: theMan
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How Many?
Peach and her new chicks are doing fine. How many does she have? At least seven, maybe more. They started hatching yesterday, and she’s keeping them in the nest today. Another day, and they will be itching to explore.
Ruby’s daughter won’t leave her mother. She’s more than two months old now, and her mother is back to laying eggs. Her daughter follows her everywhere, even waiting patiently when Ruby is sitting on a nest to lay an egg.
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New Life – Pure Joy
New life! Chicks are hatching today. No matter how many times I see new chicks peaking out from under their mother’s feathers for the first time, it is pure joy.
And in about two weeks, if all goes well, a clutch of tiny chicks will be peaking out from under this hen.
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The Last Of …
We picked the last of the apples today. Once these and the other bucket of apples we picked recently are gone, that is the last of the fresh apples. These days, hardly anyone thinks about there being a first and a last picking of a fruit or a vegetable. No one expects to go to a store and see a sign saying, “No more apples until next fall.”
Large growers can store apples in controlled atmosphere (CA) storage, keeping apples edible for many months. By reducing the amount of oxygen the apples have, it is possible to slow down their respiration and keep them relatively fresh.
Still, no matter how they are stored, apples lose firmness over time. That just-off-the-tree crunch just isn’t there. On the other hand, since so few ever experience eating an apple picked off the tree, there are very few customers who demand such freshness. Though, once you enjoy a whole season of eating apples right off the tree, there is less joy biting into an apple that has come out of storage. You look forward to next fall, when you can once again, enjoy that just-off-the-tree crunch.
- Views on CA Storage of Apple – WSU Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center
- Short-Term Controlled Atmosphere Storage of Apples – WSU Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center
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Backyard Kabuki
Dressed as flamboyantly as Kabuki actors, these young roosters put on a short, but elaborate performance. They are six months old now and turning into young men. Their combat isn’t serious yet, but in a few months it will be time to decide which ones to keep and which ones to eat.Too many roosters make life difficult for the hens, and at a man and his hoe®, the hens have precedence over the roosters.
The fire in their eyes makes you believe in fire breathing dragons. When movie makers create Medieval tales of such dragons, they should think of giant chickens dashing out of caves and terrorizing the knights and peasants.
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Eggs Are Not a Commodity
I love Hazel’s eggs. Hers have speckles and a distinctive point. (See Hazel, Hazel’s Egg, More Hazel, Laying an Egg)
Each hen lays a slightly different egg. And every time they lay an egg, it is never the exact same egg. That eggs are all the same, that each pig is pretty much the same as every other pig, that the wheat Farmer Mack grows is the same as Farmer Joe’s, that foods are pretty much the same and can be treated and sold as commodities, that is the great fantasy underlying modern agriculture. It’s why you see just a handful of apple varieties in your store when there are more than 10,000 varieties. It’s why, when you pick up a carton of eggs and look at them, they look indistinguishable.
Shiunhime’s eggs, above, are dark and lumpy. Nanette’s, below, are pale and small.
Midge’s eggs, above, are simple and light. Coullette’s, below, are fat and brown.
Becky lays a medium, oval egg. Put together, it’s clear that each egg is unique, as unique as each hen.
