It is back to below normal temperatures here; 55 degrees F right now. The forecast is for the middle sixties. One good thing about the cool weather is that the flowers stay in bloom longer; for instance, the lilacs would have began to fade by now if the weather was hot, instead they are still in their glory.
I had planned to skip ordering baby chicks this year. Yesterday, however, I ordered 50 chicks. They will arrive about the 17th. We had plenty of chicken in the freezer from last year but our laying flock is pathetic. We have eighteen hens and a rooster. We lost one of our roosters a couple weeks ago. They decided to see who was dominant, one lost. He wasn't actually killed in the fight, but he must have got speared by a spur in a vulnerable area, he died a few days later. I have raised chickens for forty years and I have never had problems with roosters, as bad, as I have had these last two years. Perhaps, it is because of our experiment.
We have, always kept a flock of old fashioned heavy breeds; Plymouth Rocks, New Hampshire Reds, Speckled Sussex, Buff Orpingtons, etc. The hens were excellent layers and the roosters supplied tasty meat. Every couple years, we would get some Rock/Cornish crosses, just for meat. We didn't like raising them because they are freaks. They are little meat factories, that waddle from the water fountain to the feed trough. They eat and poop and not much else. Their 'chickiness' is bred out of them. We ran across these red colored broilers that scratch and forage and act like real chickens. Yet, they put on weight, almost as fast as the Rock/Cornish. They, easily, get to ten twelve pounds.
We read some comments that suggested that they were good layers and would make a satisfactory dual purpose breed. We kept a dozen or so hens over for layers and a few roosters, as potential sires, of a new flock. I planned on hatching my own eggs and gradually they would become the dominant chickens of my flock.
It didn't work out. This last year, I lost about five hens over the Winter. They just died, with no visible cause. The hens are super heavy and clumsy; everyday, they break four or five eggs. They are not doing it on purpose. After forty years of chicken raising, one knows the difference. I have had an occasional chicken do it on purpose, so they could eat them. Right now we have about eight of the old fashioned mixed breeds; many are over ten years old. Then we have about ten of these red broiler experimental chickens, some are from a year ago.
So we decided to end that experiment and go back to the old fashioned breeds that have been successful for us, for forty years. We ordered twenty five females, five each of five different breeds and twenty five red broilers destined for celebration dinners.
Wow, I didn't know my chicken story would be so long. I want to talk a little about beliefs and I will come back to the subject in a future blog. I have mentioned before, how are beliefs can limit our perception and, therefore, our understanding.
We experience this world through our senses; touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight and we have feelings {emotions} that alter and interpret the data that comes in. We may know our "reality" is an illusion but it certainly is real to us. Most of us don't experience much beyond this; at least, not that we trust.
It certainly seems, to make sense, to reject what we can't demonstrate with our senses. Of course, we don't. We have all kinds of beliefs that cannot be demonstrated as true. Much of our lives are governed by beliefs that are probably unfounded. If we examine ourselves honestly we will see this.
For the time being, most of our decisions and ideas, are going to derive from a cluster of beliefs, and preconceived ideas, that are probably spurious. That is fine. That is where we are at, right now. However, we need to be aware, that every belief, we hold unto dearly, limits our perception and blocks out a whole sector of other data. When we think we know something, we condemn our selves to not knowing a whole array of other things.
We can't help but have opinions and beliefs. But we can think in terms of possibilities and probabilities and avoid concreteness. We can, also, look at ourselves {not critically-mind you} lovingly, very lovingly and ask ourselves, "what do I believe?" Does this or that belief limit me? Does it limit my capacity to love others or myself? Does it limit me in any way?
We are about to be flooded with new information on all subjects. We will be looking at everything a little differently. Long held beliefs will require alteration. Let us not hang on to anything rigidly. If we love each other and know that we live in a loving universe; all is well.
Love and Peace, Gregg
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