Cluck, cluck, cluck. The small flock of chickens is outside and making happy noises. When the hen goes inside, will she seek out a quiet place and lay an egg? Or will the slowest of the flock end up in the frying pan on Sunday?
This lovely flock lives a protected life at a Midwestern outdoor museum. They are the heritage breed Black Java. While not the egg-laying machines favored by large producers — they are said to hold their own by laying an egg every two or three days. (So six hens should give the family a couple every day — enough to bake a cake and add an egg to the biscuits and bacon on a regular basis.)
To my eye, they looked plump under those feathers. I’d target extra roosters for the cooking pot. Perhaps my farm ancestors learned how many times a year to let a hen “set” on a clutch of eggs to replenish both the flock and pan.
Polly Black, seamstress, in 1851 fictional Elm Ridge, IL, buys her meat at the butcher shop and eggs from the grocer. Her life is full with earning a living at her trade and raising her young son. Find out what happens in the eventful first year she lives in this river town in the sweet historical romance, Stitching a Dream. Click on the link for more book information. https://amzn.to/3VwoeFh
