Chickens and Eggs and Cows

“How a chicken can produce an egg I don’t know. How a cow can eat grass and hay and turn it into a steak I cannot tell, but that God made them I do know.” c e hollis

My chickens were just chicks a couple of months ago and now they are laying. The eggs were small at first but good whole eggs and so much fun. Now they are grown chickens and the eggs are medium-sized but seem a little larger every day. My daughter Brenna raised them from Tractor Supply chicks for me. Their first days they spent in a plastic tub with a heat lamp shining on them. How cute they were! Soon they were at the gangly stage and came to live on the farm.

Our eight Mama cows had a busy summer tending new calves. The calves weight about 35 to 50 pounds when they are born and Ron keeps his eye on them. Their mothers tend to hide them while they graze, so we have to be careful not to run over one in the tall grass. They are so camouflaged–although they are black you cannot see them easily. Now they romp and play in the back pasture, butting heads and kicking up their heels.

There are five plus dozen eggs in my refrigerator this morning all ten chickens are laying. One lays a chocolate colored egg. Ron tends the chicken tractor. and gathers the eggs. He enjoys the chickens, likes to feed them and works to make friends by petting them. He ruffles their feathers and talks to them. There is one colorful red, brown and gold, that he especially likes. When he takes them kitchen scraps they all press up against the wire and wait excitedly. The coop has to be moved often so the chickens can feast on bugs and worms and fresh grass. Did you know they ate grass? They can make a coop shaped bare spot in the yard if we let them stay in one place too long.

I like to sit in my rocking chair to watch the hummingbirds feed and play zipping and zinging in the sunshine. I have a pretty glass feeder that they love. I love to sit in the porch swing to watch the song birds and woodpeckers come home to eat, but this year the family of squirrels came and raided all the feeders, from their nests in the oak trees and the lofty sycamore.

Brenna has added two sheep and some goats to her homestead farm. She milks the goats and the milk is good. She gives it to her toddler and he likes it. (There is another baby who is fun to watch play!) None of our cows are milked because they need their milk to raise their calves. The calves are raised as mama cows or the steers as beef for the freezer. It is a fine sight to see the cows and our steers and bull Solomon grazing in the grass along with our old horse Whitey, his white tail flicking flies away.

Now that our seven chidren are grown up and raising families of their own, it is good to have the farm animals and and wild woodland birds and wildlife to enjoy. And when our grandchildren visit or we visit their homes it is a joy-filled time. Thank the Lord for the farm and for family. That’s what’s good about home.

---

“God made the animals of the earth according to their kind, the livestock according to their kind, and everything that crawls on the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.”

Genesis 1:25

---