Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Chickens and pears

After our pear-peeling party a couple weeks ago, we still had pears left over from generous friends contributing fruit from their trees. We had so many pears canned up that we distributed many of the extras to willing friends, but we still ended up with a box no one else wanted. We ate these fresh until they got too mushy, and then we gave them to the chickens. The chickens thought we should have done this in the first place and saved ourselves all sorts of unnecessary trouble.


Smoky immediately called all her Bandits over for the snack. Smoky is a good mom and hasn't lost a single chick. See how much they've grown?



The other hens stayed away from the babies. Smoky's been known to chase other birds away from her brood, so they treat her with respect. Don'cha just love it?


Whatever fruit is left over, the deer will eat.


Sure enough, I sneaked into the barn the next morning and caught this doe red-handed. Er, red-hoofed.


Off she goes!

6 comments:

  1. When pears are mushy they can still be dehydrated. In years gone by with many trays and lots of experimenting my family liked them the best. Well after jerky. :) I have successfully used free boxes from a local stand that were about half rotten. Just cut off the bad spots and dried the rest. They are extra sweet almost like candy.

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  2. Plenty of pears to share with everyone and every critter.
    I remember your pear pealing party,
    did you parents take a few jars back home with them?

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  3. I always try and share with all of gods creatures. I get enough for my family, share with neighbors and place a little out for animals. We did this with a stale bagel and extra peanut butter thw was goin to go bad, the birds loved working to get dried fruit, old cereal and other goodies off the bagel.

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  4. What breed are the chickens with the barred pattern (I think that's the correct term for the striping)? I had my son's picture taken at an historic farm yesterday and they had three chickens there just like that. They were so mellow. I don't know if that's a breed trait or those chickens were just used to a lot of different people approaching them.

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    1. Those are barred rocks, an excellent dual-purpose (meat and eggs) bird. They're much "breastier" than Rhode Island Reds, and frankly have a better disposition as well.

      - Patrice

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    2. Thanks for the reply! I'd forgotten I had asked this question until just now. (>.<)

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