What does it take to be a good neighbor… One thing is being willing to help when help is needed. I don’t have really close by neighbors, but they are within shouting distance. Sometime this last year, we got a few new neighbors, we have gotten close to one couple in particular. They are the type that tend to make it out here, being DIY’ers, knowing how to do things for themselves, they are also independent souls.
A few months ago, they were going out of town and had another neighbor who was going to feed & take care of their menagerie, several dogs, a cat, 2 horses, a goat and a bunch of chickens. That fell through at the very last minute and we were asked if we could take care of the animals over a long weekend. We agreed and had a great time. One of the perks was we could have any eggs we found. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten really fresh eggs, I have to tell you, there is a huge difference between commercially purchased eggs and fresh homegrown eggs.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, those same neighbors went out of town again, we again agreed to look after the critters, those chickens are so sweet, they come up to you and cluck, they seem to like the interaction, or perhaps it’s the food… At any rate, the eggs were there for us to collect, PB diligently collected all the eggs he could find and brought them home.
A few mornings ago, I decided to cook up some fried eggs with those fresh eggs, they needed to be washed first, then I proceeded to crack the eggs into a bowl. The first one cracked just fine, with a rich golden yolk, it was going to be good! The second one, well, it wouldn’t crack. I know these homegrown eggs have hard shells, but this was ridiculous! It even sounded different as I continued to whack it harder and harder on the sink. Eventually I figured out that it was a fake egg made of ceramic.
I spoke to my neighbors when they got back, and sure enough, they had put in 2 of these fake eggs, put in there to teach the hens not to peck their eggs, I have no idea where the second one is, we checked all the other eggs that we collected, it’s not at my house… I am amazed at how real these fake eggs look AND feel, they even have the weight correct.
That’s my egg story and I’m sticking to it! Oh, one more thing, I have wanted chickens since before we moved out here, but PB wasn’t really crazy about the idea, one thing that tends to happen out here is someone will get chickens, and usually get far too many for their needs, having a dozen or more laying hens, when there is just one or two people in the house. It doesn’t take long to have more eggs than you can eat. I only want to have 3 or 4 laying hens, no roosters. After PB took care of this flock and received the benefits of said flock, he mentioned to me that he might like to have some chickens. Yeah! I hope to have some hens by this spring.
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