Chicken Spaghetti

This morning's cutting--half already
 out on the chicken "plate" and half left for tomorrow

It takes a strong wind to open the door. Twice this morning my back one has given in as the blustery freshness of spring gushed through the house. Winds like this when rain is forecast make me think it will come down hard soon, so I'm in a bit of a hurry.  My neighbor's back yard is three to six inches deep in chicken spaghetti, and if I don't mow it off the Things I get to do today soon, it will be have wait for another day when the grass (chicken spaghetti) is dry enough to cut at that height.

"You just slurp it in like this."

Tastes better
when you stand in the middle of it

Nora, Lena, Latifah and Nina get their share as well, all the better when it is cut and piled on the chicken "plate."  They do, indeed, gobble it up.  Simple, sweet, and satisfying all around.

Inside Out

What's all the ruckus about eggs from your own chickens?  An egg is an egg.  Under the proper conditions it will grow into a chicken.  No big deal (other than the miracle of this whole process under any circumstances).  Or not.

Now that at least one of my girls has moved into puberty and ovulation, my list of Things I get to do today includes telling you what the big deal is.  There are even pictures (worth a thousand philosophical tweets) to help you get the full message.

A hen in my hen pen grazes on greens every day.  To be healthy she needs her grain, grits and oyster shells, but to be contented she needs to scratch the dirt and duff, eating from it whatever she pecks and pleases.  To be blissfully happy, she gets the greens.  You can see the evidence of the variety in diet by the color of the yolk.

Store bought: Big and pale

A store bought egg, even those that say cage-free, seldom, if ever, comes from a chicken who gets fresh grass or greens on her daily menu.  Visually, here is the difference.

Dark yoke in the egg  from my hen

Healthy, contented and very happy hens wander about the whole back yard (aimlessly it seems, but they are really just using their beak as a directional device: here some grass, there some dirt, over there some chicken feed. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.)

Side-by-side comparison of two eggs.  Next time you turn an egg inside-out, check for a green-grass center.

The orange-yoked egg from my hen is small (the hens first attempt
 often produces a little egg) compared to the yellow-yoked store egg.

Crazy 'Bout Greens

Stubby, short grass with generous mud is not a chicken banquet.  My gals like their greens.  They like them lush and generous.  This time of year the lawn in the hen pen is sparse, not lush.

If all children loved green vegetables the way these hens do, there would be no McDonald's, and Burger King would not stand a chance.  Can you imagine:  Super Size it with another helping of broccoli and kale, please!  And what a difference that would make.  Take 30 seconds right now to "see" all the people (children and adults) who regularly eat fast food, and then imagine what would be different about their lives if they ate vegetables instead.  Kind of blows you away, doesn't it.

Well, not to get too hung up on the eating habits of others, my job is to eat my greens and make sure my sweeties get all they need.  Since "plarking with the hens" (I could spend all morning puttering in the coop and pen making it cleaner, cozier, cuter, more comfortable and more convenient) is on my Things I get to do today, it takes the form of finding an abundant wealth of salad for the chickens.

Clockwise from 12: Katy, Nina, Latifah, Lena, Nora--green-lovers,  all.

Turns out that "Early Mizuni", an Asian green, is one of the first things to come up in the garden.  It also, and more importantly here, keeps on growing no matter what the weather in the fall and winter.  Even with frost nearly every night now for weeks, "Early Mizuni" seems untouched.  So I supersized them with a huge clump of it--the perfect fast food for hungry hens.