The heat came back. I was getting very used to the cool days and chilly nights. I thought the heat of Summer was behind us. It takes awhile to adjust to 90 degree F days and nights in the 70s or high 60s. It supposed to last only a few days and we will be back to cooler nights.
If anybody has any questions about the relative nutrition value of GMO corn; just ask my chickens. Over the last forty years I have thrown a scoop or two of whole corn to the chickens. Regardless, of what else I was feeding them, they loved the corn, the way kids love candy. Twenty chickens would clean up a scoop of corn in minutes. If one came back in an hour, they wouldn't find a kernel left on the ground. Now I throw a scoop out and it stays on the ground for three or four days. They, or somebody eats it, but it takes a long time. It took a few years for GMO corn to dominate the market in our locality. I buy from feed stores that get their corn from local farmers. Although, the feed store mixed the new corn and old corn together, there was a fair percentage of the old varieties in a sack of corn, one would buy. This year I think it is about 100% GMO. If I want to continue feeding corn I will have to find a supply. There are organic feed stores in Minnesota, I will have to see what they got. Let us hope this craziness is over soon.
Speaking of chickens; what is intelligence and what is instinct? It has annoyed me to hear people refer to dumb chickens or dumb turkeys, etc. I usually reply, "They are pretty smart at being chickens" and leave it at that. Do we really understand the difference between intelligence and instinct? I mentioned, in an earlier blog, how a hawk killed one of my pullets.
The chicks were only a few weeks old and they had only been out of their pen a few times. Since, that one chick was caught, we have not lost another; despite the fact, that the hawk has been back All that they needed, was that one time. Now they head for the bushes whenever they hear a sound that remotely sounds like a hawk. There ability to communicate with each other is amazing. After that attack, the group mind took over, if one chick sees something threatening, a chick fifty yards away seems to pick it up. Chickens recognize people. If an unfamiliar person comes into their area, they are on high alert. Visitors, often want to get the eggs with me. I certainly welcome them; but I warn them that the hens might panic. Their response varies with the individual. On the other hand, when I go out alone, they walk on my feet. They often crowd around me. Other times they simply ignore that I exist. They are never afraid of me.
I think there is intelligence in everything. Plants, flowers, trees maybe even rocks. Science is not meant to limit our knowledge; it is meant to expand it. The scientific method is a tool to determine what MIGHT be factual. The idea of science is not to limit our minds, to what is determined, as factual. How could we make new discoveries? This is an amazing magical world full of astounding unknowns. Let us use science to open our minds, not close them.
Love and Peace, Gregg
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