Happy Hen Mamas

With the last of my fall sewing projects done just in time for spring, I'm glad to have simple cotton dresses like this Selkie inspired number for all the warm work days ahead.  Farming is hard but honest work; there is no veil between you and where your meal came from.  Not only does your success at providing homegrown meals largely depend on factors outside your control, like the weather, but much of farming means that we walk the line where life and death converge.  

It's difficult to care for these animals without growing to love them.  It's even harder when you've come to love them to let them go.  That's why springtime on the farm is the very best time of year.  This is the time of all new life, renewed hope, and a fresh promise of all possibility.  When they hurt, I hurt for them.  And, when my animals are happy I cannot help but feel their joy and celebrate with them.  

This spring four of our hens have become broody.  If you're not familiar with poultry, it means their biological clocks are ticking and they're baby crazy.  That's a great thing for any farm wanting to expand as ours is; the only trouble is that our mean rooster is so old, he's shooting dust.  Sorry for the expression, but it's accurate and it presents quite a problem for our farm.  

When a hen gets broody but doesn't see any results for her efforts, she will eventually give up and she may never become broody again.  Which is what happened with one of our broody four.  After about 24 days, she gave up with no babies to show for all her work.  We couldn't let that happen to the other three, so we ordered enough baby chicks to keep each hopeful mama busy and content.  And what good mamas these ladies have been.

The best way to fool your birds is to simply wait until they have gone to sleep for the night.  Once our hens were dozing, we went out and removed the eggs from underneath them and replaced them with fluffy little chicks.  In the morning they woke up and gladly accepted all the chicks as their own and have been busily caring for them ever since.  Incidentally, this is a great way to introduce any new birds into the flock.  Just slip them in the house at night and by morning the birds will think they've always been part of the flock.

While these busy hens are building our flock, the other gals have been chipping in a little and provide us with some extra eggs to make up the difference.  It's all part of a natural rhythm of peak and decline in egg production.  They production builds from an egg or two, then for a while we'll be getting over a dozen eggs a day, and then it will all taper off again until eventually the hens enjoy a brief cessation of egg layers so the ladies can rest and recover.

Of course, there are ways to increase production and delay or deny the cessation of egg laying, but I believe that natural systems such as this are in place for an important reason and I don't tamper with them.  Instead, I think it's best to plan for the excess and preserve as much as possible.  That way nothing goes to waste and I don't burn out my hens by never giving them vacation time.

So, we've been busy dehydrating all those eggs to save up for the lean times when the hens don't lay at all.  You may think dehydrated eggs aren't very appetizing and I'd agree with you 100% if you're trying to rehydrate them for a breakfast burrito.  They have a strange and very unappetizing fishy flavor.  However, when used in baked goods like cookies and brownies, they're great and I swear they make cookies extra soft and fluffy.   So, I suppose it works out that we all get a sweet reward, and that's probably the best I'm going to do at wrapping this post up.

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