every day is a good day
This morning, Hazel and Colette decided to lay eggs at the same time, and sat down facing each other. Who was there first? It probably was Colette as she doesn’t look that happy. Though when you think about it, she’s be less happy if she had her face in Hazel’s other end.
A few days ago some of the potatoes started blooming. I’ve never seen potato blossoms in May here before. I staggered my potato plantings over five weeks, so I should have potato blossoms through July. Up close, the flowers are complex. Why do they have all that fine hair on the back of their petals? What purpose do the folds of the petals serve? What about the patterns of their petals? What do the flowers look like in ultraviolet, which is how bees see them? How many thousands of species of bacteria thrive on a potato blossom? Are there species of bacteria, fungi, and/or micro arthropods that exist only potato blossoms? Could be.
The more you look at a single blossom, the more questions you have. There is enough information in these intricate flowers to write several dissertations. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to sit in on an oral exam of a PhD candidate who has written a dissertation on potato blossoms? What questions would the professors toss at the candidate? It could become the basis for a Netflix original series.
This time of year, I start mornings with a walk through the woods. I never imagined that one day I’d be able to walk through a forest just a few steps from my front door. At this early hour, the chickens are just starting to come down off their roost. In an hour, they will start scratching their way through the thick brush, searching for good things to eat.
The forest provides so many good things. A quiet place to walk, a constant buffet for the chickens, and clean air are just a start. “One acre of trees annually consumes the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to that produced by driving an average car for 26,000 miles. That same acre of trees also produces enough oxygen for 18 people to breathe for a year.” Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
Hens sitting on eggs become radiant. Their eyes become so focused. They are not about to let anything happen to their precious eggs, so they give anyone approaching them an evil eye. There’s an intensity that beams from them. Get too close, and their feathers puff up. Get closer still, and they start to growl and shriek.
For 21 days they barely budge. Yet, they are gently shifting and turning their eggs underneath them all the time. It’s a mystery how they know what to do. How is such complex behavior controlled by DNA and how do hormones or whatever chemicals manipulating their minds get them to sit for such a long period? It’s like they have a thousand page manual with detailed instructions on what to do buried deep in their little brains.
All of nature is like this, far more complicated than we can fathom.
Rachel and her chicks are ready to move. The last of the chicks hatched during the night, and none of them want to sit still. After breakfast, she takes them outdoors. How many chicks get to go outdoors the day after they hatch? Most chicks hatch in incubators by the tens of thousands. They’ll never see their mother, and will spend their chickhood under heat lamps with tens of thousands of other chicks.
Many commercial chicken farms which raise free range chicken don’t let them outdoors until they are two to four weeks old. Having a mother hen makes all the difference in the world. The single most important thing little chicks need and crave is love.
After a long adventure outdoors, Rachel tucks all her chicks under her for a warm, afternoon nap. It’s amazing a hen can fit nine chicks underneath her without a single one visible.
