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Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Chocolate layer

This is Chocolate, my favorite layer. She loved playing hide and seek with her eggs. Choosing to cross over the storage area of the barn and laying on the other side. Recently she discovered how to get out of the enclosure all together.
She was the queen of the barnyard. Nothing caused her to fear. Except for the ducks. One would hold her down while the other tried to mate with her. It was horrible, and I was glad to be rid of the ducks.

Yesterday my oldest son ran into the house to inform me that Ya-Ya {our puppy} had been chasing Chocolate. He said he scolded her and moved on. I went outside to move the garden hose and check to see if she was too traumatize. I found her at the side of the garden. The puppy had killed her. It wasn't vicious death, it was a puppy death. She played with the hen until she died, no visible injuries. I was devastated, and ran to find my husband. He didn't even glance from the tree he was water and said "Dress her." Are you serious? I sulked back to where my Chocolate laid and picked her up. She was still warm and pliable, so death had visited only a short time before. I carried her back to my husband and told him he needed to bleed her out then so I could get the water boiling.

Maybe it was my mood, but I was in no hurry to do this. But the water began to boil and I moved outside to the tree where Chocolate now hung. I hard scalded her for a count of 30 and began to dress her. Oddly enough, the job only took thirty minutes. I must be getting better at this. She is now cut up and in the freezer. I will miss that hen.

I might be the only one here that finds this fascinating. But the picture below is of the developmental process of an egg. The fully formed egg is not one of Chocolates. We had that for dinner, before all this happened. But she does have at least one more egg out there that I will find this morning.
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It's Wednesday. That means I am once again pushing for sponsors. On JULY 29th I will be blogging for 24 hours to raise money for Farm aid. Please think about sponsoring me. There is only 3 days left! Family farms around America are disappearing because of big companies and financial woes. Do me a favor, look in your pantry and grab a can of veggies. Then go to your local Farm Market or produce stand and buy the same veggie from them. Could you feel the price difference, can you taste it? What happens when the farmer you just bought from can no longer afford to pay back their loans.? How would you feel if a home that has been in your family for 100 years is suddenly bought out from under you by a corporation? Farm Aid helps those farmers stay on their land. Not only do family farms need your patronage, but Organizations like Farm Aid to help them when things get too dark for them to handle alone. Please Sponsor Me!
And if you are unable to sponsor me, please stop by on the 29th to cheer me on.

4 comments:

The Unusual Farmchick said...

so all those "yolks" came from her? Wow! that is realy fascintaing. Now I am going to save the entry/pic to send to a friend. I am so sorry you lost your dear hen. I can symphasize, I lost my fave strwaberry- a silkie this last winter.

Phelan said...

Thank you.

There was a bunch more, but I decided on lining them up by size. The one next to the fully developed egg would have been laid today, and so forth. The anatomy of a female hen is truly fascinating.

As for “yolks” the yolks are ready for development on the inside of the sack that you see. We broke one open. None of my books go into such detail, so I am going to need to look some things up.

Cheryl said...

I'm sorry to hear about poor Chocolate. What an interesting photo, though, I will be showing it to my kids.
Good luck with the Blogathon!
Cheryl

Anonymous said...

That's so very sad. I'm sorry about Chocolate.

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