Today my Cooperative Farming News monthly newspaper arrived and I got myself a glass of iced tea and settled down to read all 48 pages. Jim just doesn't understand what I find of interest in this farm news. Plenty I tell him, but mostly nostalgia and recalling memories of my early days on a working farm.
On the front cover was an article about a resident in the Birmingham area of Homewood who was trying to save her "yard birds" from code restrictions. First of all, when did chickens become "yard birds"? She keeps her 7 "girls" in a portable coop that she can move about in her back yard, among the herbs and flowers. Her American Dominques all have names and they are specialty chickens, not just ordinary birds. I wonder if these fashionable chicks are what we raised in the 1940s and we call them "dom-i-neckers". They were good layers. We also had Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks. See, I know all about yard birds!
We didn't keep our chickens in a coop during the day. They were "free range" and roamed all over the yard and garden, picking insects off the vegetables, eating berries, etc. on the ground and of course the cracked corn we would throw on the ground for them to eat. At dusk, they would head to the chicken house for the evening and would get up off the ground to roost, tucking their heads under their wings and going to sleep.
We would fasten the gate of the fenced area around the coop to keep wild animals and dogs from getting to the chickens at night.
There's nothing more exciting for a child, when hearing a hen cackling, than to rush out to see that she has layed an egg in her nest of straw. When they are younger, they lay an egg every day. When they get 2 or 3 years old and stop producing an egg every day, mother would isolate that chicken and we would have a meal with chicken for Sunday dinner. They were too tough to fry after they get adult size.
We have some friends who have a little girl 8 who has her own chickens. A sign on the gate says "Grace's Girls". She has 12 red hens. We watched her approach the pen recently and they heard her coming and all gathered near the fence, clucking excitedly. She knelt down and talked to them and they were all "answering" her. What a sight! Her dad built small doors on the outside of the chicken house so she can lift the door and get the eggs without going into the pen. Since they don't eat a dozen eggs every day, she has customers that she sells the eggs to and saves her money. What a great lesson for this little girl. She also has some pheasants in another area. Fortunately they live in the country and have a few acres to do all of this.
Last Feb. we were in Sarasota, FL visiting my sister and family, and went to the County Fair. I had to go see the prize-winning animals and my favorite part of course was the chickens and roosters. I'm posting a photo of an exotic hen that I would love to have for a pet??? Jim just looked at me and rolled his eyes. At least chickens don't bark, or crow like roosters and only make a noise when they lay an egg. You use the "droppings" for fertilizer for the yard or garden. And when one quits producing eggs, you make a meal (or two) out of the old biddy!!
