Hello, dear readers:
This past week I've been "chicken-sitting." Many years ago I had a small farmette in the outskirts of Bel Air but within one mile of Bel Air and almost into Forest Hill. We had 2.67 acres there. Just before we moved there a relative gave us four baby peeps. His grandchildren, who lived with him and his wife, grew tired of the peeps soon after Easter so he called and asked if I would take them.
We built a chicken house and got more chickens and in time collected fresh eggs every day. So, I am a very experienced "chicken sitter" of more than 25 years owning chickens. Then one year we had a big ice and snow storm and ice lay on the ground for six weeks or more. It was very dangerous just to go to the chicken house to feed them. I had to buy a pair of cleated golf shoes to get traction on the ice because the chicken house was downhill from the house. If I had broken a leg or arm slipping and sliding down the hill, then who would take care of the chickens. I couldn't expect my disabled husband or my aged mother to go feed them for me. So...I decided, after 25 years being the neighborhood "egg lady", to sell them and go out of the business.
I have certainly missed my chickens as well as the beautiful goats I used to own. So now, my next door neighbor decided last year to get herself some chickens to raise for the eggs. She was raised on a Virginia farm so I didn't need to tell her anything she already knew about raising chickens. I enjoyed watching those little peeps become good sized laying hens this year. Several times my neighbor and her family have gone camping for four or five days and asked me to "chicken sit". I was delighted. And...I got to keep all the eggs the hens layed while they were gone. What a bonus! Fresh, big brown eggs again. Plus, she gave me the produce from her garden while they were away so it wouldn't go to waste. Now, you can't get better than that keeping an eye on a bunch of good looking hens running around in the pen in her big yard.
In five days I am two and a half dozen eggs richer, plus at least a quart of cherry tomatoes to the good, two zucchini and five cucumbers. Wow! what a treat.
Gotta go now and put the chickens to bed for the night. See you again soon.
Evelyn
