Chickens are born knowing how to take dirt baths, but when they get to learn this behavior from their mother, they sure enjoy it.
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Learning How to Bathe
Hazel’s Egg
Every hen lays a special egg. To lay wonderful eggs, chickens need good food, plenty of exercise, and a quiet place to sit.
Never a Dull Moment
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With chickens, there is never a dull moment. It’s a sunny, January morning. The hens in the nesting boxes are sounding an alarm. Minutes later, all is calm. Outside, the chickens are enjoying the winter sun. Chickens are constantly on the move. In a matter of minutes they will travel long distances.
Dirt Bath in the Sun
On a sunny day, chickens enjoy taking dust and dirt baths. They can really kick up a storm, turning upside down even to work dust and dirt deep into their feathers and onto their skin. They do this to clean themselves, and to get rid of parasites. How this works is that the dust clogs the breathing pores of the parasites, killing them. Smart birds.
That’s why when chickens shake their bodies, sometimes they leave behind a cloud of dust.
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One Month Old Chicks
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The chicks which hatched December 19, 2013, are four months old now, nearly a month old. They are getting quite independent and running ahead of their mother. She’s the one trying to keep up with them now.
Some mothers stop their child rearing around now. Others continue for another month or two. We’ll see how long she keeps on the job.
Morning Eggs
Even though it is still early January, the hens are laying more eggs. Their winter slump has ended and daily egg production has gone from five to seven up to eighteen. It will double from that in a few months.
We have one hen, Lucky, who lays her eggs in one of the dog houses. Each morning it is a race between us and the dogs as to who gets her eggs. This morning we got the egg. Most mornings all we find is an empty shell.
Three Week Old Chicks
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At three weeks the chicks are traveling a long distance with their mother. At times she is the one who is following them as they go in search of good things to eat.
Worms and bugs make up a big portion of a chicken’s diet. They are great to have around to keep the bug population in check. But if you are growing vegetables or flower beds, you need to keep them out, or they will quickly dig up all your vegetables and flowers as they search for worms and bugs.
17 Day Old Chicks
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At 17 days of age, these chicks are spending most of the day outdoors. Their mother takes them outside at the crack of dawn in search of good things to eat. In a matter of hours, they will travel further than broiler chickens travel their entire lives. When you see how far chickens like to go in search of food, you understand how intolerable it is to raise them in densities of one chicken per square foot. With a mother, chicks enjoy a very rich life.
Fresh Liver
You’ll never find liver like this in the store. Liver from chickens which exercise much of the day, get plenty of fresh air and sunshine, is plump and dry.
When chickens are out walking all day, rummaging for food, playing, and having a good time, they are pumping copious amounts of oxygenated blood through their bodies, much like people who exercise. Chickens raised in cramp quarters and butchered at a very young age, never attain the level of health of chickens raised outdoors. And this shows in the quality of their livers.
Fried in butter, chicken fat, or olive oil for several minutes on each side, it has so much flavor that no salt is needed. In fact, you should first taste it before adding any salt. Often salt, instead of enhancing the flavor of foods, just makes foods taste like salt.
Liver is best eaten within a few hours of processing a chicken. Are there any stores which sell chicken liver from chickens butchered that day? Let me know if you find one. The next time you buy chicken liver in a store, ask the grocer when the liver was taken. If they don’t know, what does that say about their concern for the quality of the food they sell to you?
Frosty Morning
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<p>A little frost doesn’t bother the chickens. It’s a cloudless morning and the sun will soon melt the frost.</p>