@ Penny Hen
Well if you're crazy then I am more so -- you will not believe what a match the theme of that old folk song is for the full tale of what actually happened.
So here is the back story & all the info you can draw from for the new version of the song...
The Ballad of Goodhen & The Great Recession (or whatever you decide to call it):
Along about the time of what became known as the Great Recession the folks on the mtn here were all struggling to make ends meet.
Extended families by blood or choice were pulling resources, moving in with each other, trading labor , sharing produce and just doing whatever we could to get by.
We cleared a room & rented very cheep to a middle aged couple from out of state for part of the winter while they made arrangements to move closer to their extended family on our mountain.
It helped us keep the heat on, and we literally shared our rice and beans, and chicken dumplings with them so nobody starved.
We ate all our meat rabbits because the price of rabbit feed had gone from $7 a bag to $20 for the same bag.
I switched over to chickens who at least can free range some.
The middle aged couple moved into a small trailer down the road near her elderly parents and she got some part time office work at a medical clinic.
One day she called offering me 7 free white chickens which had been given to the doctor **as payment for services from someone who had no other way to pay**.
Nobody at the office had a way to keep the birds so she thought to give them to us for our past help to her.
The birds were said to be pol "egglayer" pullets, who turned out to be barely feathered Cornish cross and most were cockerals but I gladly took the gifted birds being ourselves like everyone still in hard times.
They grew and most became meals except one large white hen who was getting along well with my small layer flock and just never got sent to freezer camp.
Then one day that very very large hen laid the most Jumbo egg I'd ever seen. I was thrilled and told the DH she was a jumbo layer not a stew bird! She laid a jumbo egg every day and
at the peak of the summer for a couple weeks she actually laid 3 eggs during each 48 hrs which I didn't believe possible but was so happy about that I named her "Goodhen".
That Nov. I missed collecting eggs for a couple of days & Goodhen started sitting. Again I just couldn't believe it but figured we had already had some frost nights so I'd just let her quit laying and take a break. Well she broodied that clutch of eggs and then carried 2 chicks on her back whenever the ground was wet or snowy all Dec and Jan.
The little redish chick was growing into a nice pullet who I called simply "Goodhen's Daughter".
Due to the high cost of feed I really needed to get the birds back to free ranging asap.
So as stated earlier as soon as I thought Goodhen's Daughter was too big for the barn cats to hurt and it was a lovely day I opened the pen door, a large bug buzzed along, Goodhen's Daughter saw the bug and in all the glory of free range chicken joy she ran after that bug out across everything as far as my eye could follow as I realized there goes all that time and effort and possible future jumbo eggs and chicken filled pots of food, gone to the ends of the earth following her own free lunch and never to return.
(Insult to injury the annual fox tax <-yes that is literally what I call it, got Goodhen shortly thereafter).
So, if that doesn't make one amazing modern folk song then nothing ever will, and every detail above is 100% true.
I can't wait to hear what you do with it!!
Well if you're crazy then I am more so -- you will not believe what a match the theme of that old folk song is for the full tale of what actually happened.
So here is the back story & all the info you can draw from for the new version of the song...
The Ballad of Goodhen & The Great Recession (or whatever you decide to call it):
Along about the time of what became known as the Great Recession the folks on the mtn here were all struggling to make ends meet.
Extended families by blood or choice were pulling resources, moving in with each other, trading labor , sharing produce and just doing whatever we could to get by.
We cleared a room & rented very cheep to a middle aged couple from out of state for part of the winter while they made arrangements to move closer to their extended family on our mountain.
It helped us keep the heat on, and we literally shared our rice and beans, and chicken dumplings with them so nobody starved.
We ate all our meat rabbits because the price of rabbit feed had gone from $7 a bag to $20 for the same bag.
I switched over to chickens who at least can free range some.
The middle aged couple moved into a small trailer down the road near her elderly parents and she got some part time office work at a medical clinic.
One day she called offering me 7 free white chickens which had been given to the doctor **as payment for services from someone who had no other way to pay**.
Nobody at the office had a way to keep the birds so she thought to give them to us for our past help to her.
The birds were said to be pol "egglayer" pullets, who turned out to be barely feathered Cornish cross and most were cockerals but I gladly took the gifted birds being ourselves like everyone still in hard times.
They grew and most became meals except one large white hen who was getting along well with my small layer flock and just never got sent to freezer camp.
Then one day that very very large hen laid the most Jumbo egg I'd ever seen. I was thrilled and told the DH she was a jumbo layer not a stew bird! She laid a jumbo egg every day and
at the peak of the summer for a couple weeks she actually laid 3 eggs during each 48 hrs which I didn't believe possible but was so happy about that I named her "Goodhen".
That Nov. I missed collecting eggs for a couple of days & Goodhen started sitting. Again I just couldn't believe it but figured we had already had some frost nights so I'd just let her quit laying and take a break. Well she broodied that clutch of eggs and then carried 2 chicks on her back whenever the ground was wet or snowy all Dec and Jan.
The little redish chick was growing into a nice pullet who I called simply "Goodhen's Daughter".
Due to the high cost of feed I really needed to get the birds back to free ranging asap.
So as stated earlier as soon as I thought Goodhen's Daughter was too big for the barn cats to hurt and it was a lovely day I opened the pen door, a large bug buzzed along, Goodhen's Daughter saw the bug and in all the glory of free range chicken joy she ran after that bug out across everything as far as my eye could follow as I realized there goes all that time and effort and possible future jumbo eggs and chicken filled pots of food, gone to the ends of the earth following her own free lunch and never to return.
(Insult to injury the annual fox tax <-yes that is literally what I call it, got Goodhen shortly thereafter).
So, if that doesn't make one amazing modern folk song then nothing ever will, and every detail above is 100% true.
I can't wait to hear what you do with it!!
I am HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!
