Chickens

Have you noticed?  I don't get much blogging done in February and March... for a variety of reasons:

1.  work is crazy busy and I put in extra hours;
2.  which means that my "home time" is jam packed with activities (cleaning, cooking, washing, and yes - playing with kids) and not filled with lots of blogging and taking pictures; and
3.  illnesses can wreak havoc on our already-packed schedule.

Now that we are getting over our illnesses - at least one person in the house has been horribly ill for some part of the last few weeks - and work is slowing down, I am back on the blog train.  Hey y'all!!! 

At this very moment, I just finished reading the - ahem - care manual for the chicks that we are fostering.

WHAT???

Yup - a local farm (they call themselves "holistic" actually) is reaching out to the community and giving an educational experience to raise chicks for two weeks.  The opportunity comes with a tour of the farm, supplies for the chicks, and then a dozen farm-raised eggs when we return the chicks in two weeks.

My whole family is beyond excited.  I am excited - my biggest concern is that I do not want them to die - please do not die!

The care manual seems fairly straight forward.  {{Please do not die!}}

 
This chick project creates another problem for me though.  It's a kindness-to-animals dilemma actually.

Last year {{was it last year - maybe it was two years ago}}  I read The Omnivore's Dilemma which is a book about what we eat, where it comes from, and the treatment of farm animals.  I didn't really change that much about what we eat.  However, we are trying to eat one vegetarian meal a week and this past week we were meatless for 4 days in a row.  More and more, meat is starting to seem a bit icky to me.  I am fine with eating meat, but I am not so fine with inhumane animal living conditions.

Regarding egg-laying chicks... they are some of the must abused animals in the meat-production world.  Really people.  You can google it for yourselves and I am not passing judgement on anyone who eats eggs... but I feel so bad for the mother hens... sooo bad.

So, I am researching ways to get my hands on some eggs with humanely treated mother hens.  I urge you to do your own research – google "humane egg brands" – but basically the bottom line is you need to check your labels and this is what you need to know: 

If you want to take a step back to the pure, bucolic life an egg evokes, the World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA) asks you to make a modest new year's resolution -- switch from commercially raised eggs to buying those labeled "Certified Humane," "American Humane Certified," or "Animal Welfare Approved." This means your eggs came from chickens raised with care, not confined to battery cages and stuffed with weird growth hormones or antibiotics. And these three designations are verified and monitored by animal rights organizations. In other words, they have some oomph behind them, unlike popular claims like "cage-free," which does not.  See Ellen Canner - Meatless Monday, Cracking the Egg Label Code

Thus, I think that I am fairly certain that all of our eggs that we eat at home will be labeled "Certified Humane," "American Humane Certified," or "Animal Welfare Approved."  And, I'm not quite sure if I can find these in my regular grocery store, so I might need to go to Whole Foods.  And, I am fairly certain that I am going to have a small heart attack when I see the cost of these eggs.... but I'll have to get over that.

Again, I am not passing judgement on how you get your eggs... I just know that these two little bundles of sweetness are coming to stay with us... will be in our care... and I owe it to them and their relatives to do the best I can to only support the best care they can get.

While we wait for out Easter chicks to arrive, lets look for some signs of Easter around the house.


Look - the baskets are waiting to be filled....

... and plastic eggs are everywhere!

By the way, we are dyeing real eggs this year but we are all about these egg nots ceramic eggs next year.  Cool, huh?

Are there signs of Easter around your house?