I'm a convert

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Oh, and she did mention how good they were about keeping the backyard vege beds clean of weeds and the dirt broken up. :ROFLMAO:
 
I have about 20 hens, a couple roosters, and 3 turkeys. Not free ranging--I am a gardener, and chickens and gardens do not do well together full time.

My girls do get all the weeds I pull, kitchen leftovers and laying pellets. I adore the turkeys--much friendlier than the chickens, but Mr. Tom is incessantly noisy. He gobbles morning til night, started in November and hasn't stopped yet. Good thing he is so pretty. My six year old granddaughter loves turkey eggs--she ate 3 for breakfast one morning.

I sell my eggs for $2 a dozen, when I don't give them away to my friends and relations.

My girls get the run of the vegetable garden in the winter and limited access to the perennial beds. They can do a lot of damage in their quest for seeds and bugs. They did pretty much eradicate my nutsedge this winter, a pleasant surprise.
 
but what about sturgeon eggs? I don't see anybody talking about their pet sturgeons. What about trout eggs? They are a delicacy as well. Let me tell you about me and my pet trout.

"Let me tell you a fish story, the way fish stories are supposed to be told .

I was in a small, 12 foot aluminum boat fishing the Niagara river. I was about two miles upstream of the Horseshoe falls, having drifted about 5 miles downstream from my starting point. So I thought that I'd better fire up the old girl and head upstream. She wouldn't start. I started saying some very mean things to her, and she just became more stubborn. I thought about jumping out, but there were no logs I could swim to so that I could whittle a propeller on one end, so that I could stand on the log and roll it with my feet to propel me back to safety. I just kept on trying to start old Ruthey (that's what I called my boat), Suddenly, I saw my rod bend further and faster than I'd ever seen that fishing rod bend. It was made for catching orcas. I grabbed the rod and gave a mighty tug. Whatever was on the other end of that line gave a mighty tug back that almost pulled me out of the boat. But I hung on. Well that fish ran straight upstream so hard that I knew I was saved from a horrible death by plunging down the falls. I braced my feet against the bow and hung onto that pole for dear life. That fish ran so fast that my boat came instantly on plane. I'd say we were doing 20 knots or so.

After about ten minutes, the beast began to slow down. I was plenty far away from the falls. Another couple of five minute runs, just as fast as that first run, had tired the beast out. It leaped into the air one time, revealing itself as the biggest steelhead that had ever been seen, anywhere. That fish was twelve foot long!

I finally got it to the boat. It looked at me with those steelhead eyes as if to say; "You know, I just saved your life. Besides, I'm tough and old, not very good for eaten. How about you just cut the line. That little hook will rust away soon enough and I'll be as good as new. How about it. Cut the line.

I'm telling you the absolute truth, that's what those eyes said to me. So, I cut the line. Yep, I see old Herbert every now and again. That's what I named him. He likes the name.

He swims in Lake Superior now. He'll rise to just under the surface, then snap his jaws to spit water at me. I furiously wag my finger at him and say; "Keep it up Herbert, and one of these days you'll end up in my frying pan. We both laugh. Steelheads look very peculiar when they laugh. Then, he just swims away, sometimes to chase a school of whitefish to my boat, sometimes, just to enjoy his mighty wet kingdom. Everybody should have a steelhead for a best friend, dontcha think? Oh, he’ll occasionally round up lake trout roe for me, and push a mass of them to my boat. “Never liked them lake trout, he’d say. They think their all that. No humility at all in those down deep fish. Enjoy them eggs. I know I do.
Then he grins, and off he goes, probably to those female steelhead and rainbows."

So when you all get talking about the goodness of free-range chickens and their eggs, think about old Herbert. His roaming areas include all of the Great Leggs, and the Atlantic ocian, and he gets to eat anything that swims in them. Now those eggs, of his lady-freinds, are so very rich in flavor, indeed.:D

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
but what about sturgeon eggs? I don't see anybody talking about their pet sturgeons. What about trout eggs? They are a delicacy as well. Let me tell you about me and my pet trout.

"Let me tell you a fish story, the way fish stories are supposed to be told .

...“Never liked them lake trout, he’d say. They think their all that. No humility at all in those down deep fish. Enjoy them eggs. I know I do.
Then he grins, and off he goes, probably to those female steelhead and rainbows."

So when you all get talking about the goodness of free-range chickens and their eggs, think about old Herbert. His roaming areas include all of the Great Leggs, and the Atlantic ocian, and he gets to eat anything that swims in them. Now those eggs, of his lady-freinds, are so very rich in flavor, indeed.:D

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

:heart: this story, Chief :mrgreen:
 
:heart: this story, Chief :mrgreen:
Well, I'm going to have to start another thread about how everything in life relates back to fishing and let all of you chicken freinds have your thread back.:mrgr.een: Oh, and just sos ya knows that I've been paying attention, I at one time had chickens as well. Can't where I live right now. Currently, on of my fellow workers (very nice lady office manager), lives in the country and has chickens, a couple of goats, a cow or two, and various other critters that her teen-age daughter lives to care for. This young lady is pursuing her dream of becoming a veterinarian and uses the little hobby farm as a place to increase her knowledge. She's very serious about what goes into the garden as well.

Anyway, we get fresh eggs, mostly brown, with a few whites, all jumbo in size, for $2 a dozen. They are great, but can have thin shells at times. Also, during the winter months, sometimes, as soon as the eggs are cracked into a hot pan, the yolk breaks. I'm very gentle when I put them in the pan. In any case, the yolks are a dark, rich yellow, almost orange, and with a creamy texture and deep flavor unmatched by any you can purchase in a store. Right now, her hens are molting, and aren't great egg layers. That will soon be over and I'll be getting good eggs again. I'm do a dozen that are already paid for. I missed work today, and expect that my eggs are in the office fridge. I'll get them tomorrow. Even a good, French omelet is better with those rich yolks.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
I'm looking forward to making an omelet with a couple of these eggs tomorrow. So far, I've only had them fried, in order to enjoy the runny yolks. The shells on these are pretty tough. It takes some extra effort to break them, which is why one of the the yolks in the pic is broken.
 
For a while, I was getting fresh eggs from someone who was selling them for $2/dozen. Unfortunately, I now live 20 miles away and never see her anymore. They have fresh eggs at the Farmer's Market here, but they're $6/dozen. I wish I could afford that, but I just can't. At least the Winco here sells jumbo eggs at a decent price and I have gotten a lot of double yolks from them.

That reminds me of something I read about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband, Almanzo. Her husband had said he had never had to spray his apple trees because the quail were so good at getting all the insects. But in later years he had to spray because the local boys were shooting all the quail. I'm wondering if chickens would do as good at keeping the insects out of tree farms as quail seem to.
 
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I would love to have some chickens, they really do make nice pets. Unfortunately, we have too many wild and semi-wild critters around who also like chickens, but not for pets...

Our neighbor has hens. She is from Croatia and was born in the 1930's, so they're very frugal and practical people. They also have a huge garden and grow a lot of their food.
 
My friend has chickens and keeps them in a chicken tractor. He uses the one with the wheels so he can move it around the yard. I am not kidding, look it up.
 
We have a local chicken farm about two miles away. A flat of 20 jumbo eggs is $2.
I can't tell the difference between the farm fresh and the grocery store eggs.
 
We have a local chicken farm about two miles away. A flat of 20 jumbo eggs is $2.
I can't tell the difference between the farm fresh and the grocery store eggs.

At $2 for20 I'd have to guess you mean a literal chicken farm, as in commercial operation. Yes? If so, those are probably eggs you get in the supermarkets, just haven't gone thru the middlemen yet. I think most of the people posting on this thread are talking about small personal farms that just provide more eggs than what the person keeping them needs, so they give away or sell the extras to help defer costs. I can pretty much guarantee those kinds of chickens get better feed and treatment than a commercial farm. I know my friend fed her babies/chickens a premium diet and they certainly weren't caged.
 
We have a local chicken farm about two miles away. A flat of 20 jumbo eggs is $2.
I can't tell the difference between the farm fresh and the grocery store eggs.

I find that the farm fresh have brighter color and higher yolks. And there is less water surrounding the whites. Makes for a more perfectly round egg when cooked. :angel:
 
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