So You Wanna Be a Farmer?

I don't eat eggs but I stick my hand into their shit spattered straw every morning searching for them. There are 9 hens here, laying 1 to 2 eggs daily during high season. Today I found a cache of 10 of them in the in a nest in the shed, which I’d failed to check during the past two weeks here.

People romanticize farming. The idyllic red barn, raked gravel yard, the gentle lowing of the cows and bleating of the sheep. Lemme give you a reality check. Yea, there’s a barn. Here it’s a shed where the sheep are brought to lamb. Right now it’s splattered with chicken crap since the hens take refuge there during rainy days when not foraging for bugs. The chickens walk peck crap walk peck crap walk peck crap. The doodoo mixes with the mud, but the hens just keep on trucking through it. The cows nearby sound as if they are groaning rather than mooing and those little fluffy sheep we imagined are mud caked clumps on legs.

When it’s cold outside, you have to leave the coziness of your bed or kitchen to go out to check on your animals. Their water trough may have frozen over, someone may have their hoof stuck in a hole, the chooks need to be let out to root about. They provide something for your livelihood—eggs or meat to consume or sell, wool to spin for yarn or to use as mulch for your garden. So get up, put on your Wellies and you can have your cup of tea later. Henny Penny is waiting.

Check out this video of the Omlet, the chicken house that’s used here. I have to clean it out every few days. https://photos.app.goo.gl/6o9bqGUmuTcYmPDj7