a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Category: About My Chickens

  • Too Far to Go


    I found a bee sleeping on a daisy yesterday morning. It’s a common sight in the summer, to find a bee who decided to spend the night on a flower instead of returning to the hive. I suppose if you’ve gone too far and been caught by a setting sun, a daisy makes as good a bed as any.


    And when your life is over, for a bee, a daisy makes a nice final resting place. Such short lives bees live.


    A new nest brimming with eggs explains why I haven’t been gathering as many eggs as usual. When the number of eggs in the nest drops, it is a good sign that some of the hens have found a new place to lay eggs.

  • A Dewy Web


    It’s a cool, July morning. During the night, a spider spun a dewy web in the grass.



    The Barred Rocks are fully grown. I haven’t spotted one on a nest yet, but I am finding pullet eggs so I’m sure they are starting to lay.



    The forest is a favorite place for mother hens to bring their chicks. How many chicks are in the picture? They blend in well to the forest floor. Every mother hen has her own rearing style. Most don’t start roosting until their chicks can fly up with her. Maybe because it is summer, or maybe because she was raising so many, she went back to roosting after two weeks, leaving her large brood to huddle together on the floor at night, but during the day, she calls them all, and leads them on great treks through the woods and out beyond the cabin.



  • Lap of Luxury


    An unexpected surprise were the falling flowers from this morning’s bouquet. Within minutes of bringing in fresh flowers for the table, some of the flowers rained down on my keyboard and the table.



    And this is the definition of luxury. From a friend, a pile of their alpaca fur clippings for my chickens. Yes, alpaca fur lined nests. I’ve yet to read a claim on any egg cartons that their hens have alpaca fur lined nests.


    It’s an experiment to see if hens prefer alpaca lined nests to straw and hay nests. And to entice them to use one of the two alpaca fur nests, I sprinkled herbs on one of them. According to another friend who gifted me these herbs, they are supposed to attract hens to nests when you sprinkle them onto the nest. We will see. I have my doubts.




    And more chicks hatched today, by Hazel, who weeks ago, decided to nest in an out of the way place, hidden behind a board, above a set of nesting boxes. I knew one of her chicks had hatched when I heard it peeping, went into the chicken coop, and discovered the chick perched high above the nesting boxes. I tucked her back underneath her mother, and will move Hazel and her new chicks to someplace closer to the ground tonight. She is up more than five feet above the ground. I wonder how she is planning to get her chicks down.

  • One More Day?


    Happy and his consorts are always happy to devour any leftover tofu or okara when I am in the cabin making tofu.


    One more day? The cherry trees are full of cherries this year. The birds are leaving them alone this year. Often they don’t get to ripen this far before they are picked clean. Will they taste better tomorrow? With this many cherries, and just two of us to eat them, we can try some today, leave some for tomorrow, and have more the day after.



    Let radishes go to bloom and this is what you get, delightful, butterfly-like flowers dancing in the breeze. There are so many vegetables that send out charming flowers if you don’t eat them. Carrots, onions, kale, lettuce, all are worth growing just for their blooms.

  • When Potatoes Bloom


    It’s a special time when pototoes bloom. I look forward to their gentle flowers every year. With flowers this lovely, it would be easy to deceive those who have no ideas potatoes develop in the ground, that potatoes are the fruits of these delicate blossoms.


    The cherries are maybe a few weeks away from ripening. Mine never make it to market. We and the birds end up eating them all.


    The five young Barred Rocks are not far from laying their first eggs. All siblings, these five hang out together all the time.


    It’s also the special time of the year when garlic scapes can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What do they taste like? They are a lot like string beans with a hint of garlic.