Watching Hens Eat

[polly7]

Published Mar 28 2012 by The Contrary Farmer, Mulligan Books & Seeds, Archived Mar 28 2012
Watching Hens Eat
by Gene Logsdon

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-03-28/watching-hens-eat

?w=604

"I’ve learned more about the economies of small scale food production from watching chickens than from any library or university. The hens reveal a world almost foreign to our human experience. Ever since farming became a capitalistic enterprise, husbandry has been organized around the idea of making money, not making food. When the farmer is freed from the yoke of money-making, wonderful alternatives become possible in food production. More people can do it, for one thing. It doesn’t take a quarter million bucks to get started. If more people do it, eventually the gardeners will become the farmers and the economics of food production will be turned upside down.".....

I remember going out on the deck before work every morning and opening the trap door for the bug zapper after letting the chickens out to roam. The actually raced from the coop by the barn to the deck and nearly mowed me over ...... it was like Christmas dinner for them every day. The rest of the day they spent digging and pecking and eating who knows what. I loved my chickens and named them all, but when it came that terrible time ..... they tasted better than any chicken out of any store.

[bemildred]

1. "the yoke of money-making"

Yep. You spend your whole life on a treadmill, doing some shitty job, and then you get old and die.

[polly7]

2. Sad, but true.

[MicaelS]

3. Great article, thanks! n/t

[alphafemale]

4. I'd love to live in a place where we could have a few yard birds.

And even a few goats.

I don't particularly like goats milk, but they would keep the grass short. lol

[MrMickeysMom]

5. Aw, shit... you killed them?

Not your pet chickens!@!!%#?

[polly7]

6. Yes, I did.

They weren't really pets, I bought a few dozen as teeny chicks every year ........ but we had to eat, you know? They did have good lives, and I hugged them a lot and fed them special treats along with home-raised grain, they were only locked up at night and so got to enjoy going anywhere they felt like during the day and eating all the bugs they loved .... if that means anything at all. Farms are nice, but cruel too, I guess. I'm sorry about that.

[MrMickeysMom]

7. This reminds me of a story...

My mother and her mother, handling the farm while my grandpa was serving in WWII, HAD to kill this ole rooster they had amongst the chickens they hadn't had to kill yet.

The story is something like a Lucy and Ethyl on an "I Love Lucy" episode... It was almost a comedy, but neither one of them had every prepared themselves.

I'll bet you were far more knowledgeable AND human in doing it.

[polly7]

8. Well, we should have had our own show, to tell you the truth.

My Dad, Mom and sister helped me. We caught the poor things one by one and did the dirty deed, but had to turn it into a kind of a party just to keep from feeling like low-life, heartless murderers. So, I'd hand off a plucked chicken with downy bits left in opportune places for my Mom to clean ..... who promptly freaked and screamed when she saw them and threw them back. And, my sister and I did sort of make necklaces and bracelets. Did you know they sort of sing if you make them dance just right after all is cleaned and done up? Ok, I'm a sick 'b' ... oops, can't say that even about myself, but you get the picture. To do this terrible job to animals you've taken care of, you have to dig up a little black humour, otherwise you just cry. Sorry for anyone I've offended.

BUT .... I should add, we appreciated every meal we had of them, and as times were a bit tough then, I used every morsel until the last bit was used for soup. Never once were they mistreated in life.

[MrMickeysMom]

9. LOL!

It's all good (weeping...)

[polly7]

10. I'm sorry:( I know how hard it is to hear.

You're a good person for caring so much.