spent hens

I know my blogs tend toward the darker, or more somber and serious side of life.  But I think I try to point out the "silver lining" around the dark clouds, to give hope where there may seem to be little or no hope.  The following is a good example of good coming from something that has little or no appearance of good.

We recently butchered all of our  Buff Orpington chickens because they were not being very good layers.  As an experiment of sorts we decided to get 25 "spent hens" from a chicken farm nearby that was getting rid of their layers because production was starting to decline. There are quite a few of these confinement chicken barns around here, owned by Amish Mennonites.  The farmer I work for owns one and I am often called upon to help out with his chicken chores.  To me, it is a travesty to raise any animal in the kind of confined conditions that most farm animals are raised in these days. Although the conditions may technically be called "humane", the fact that egg production begins to fall after only eighteen months is an indicator that these chickens are under unusually stressful conditions.  (Normally a healthy hen should be able to maintain egg laying capabilities for at least twice that length of time.) A friend had told us that we could buy chickens, cheap, from one of these operations that were getting ready to ship out their "spent hens", and that these hens could still continue to be productive for about another 6 months.  So we decided to give it a try.

Most of these spent hens truly look spent.  They are the sorriest hens you'd ever want to see.  Most of their beautiful tail feathers are gone, as well as the feathers around their necks and elsewhere, giving them an almost naked appearance.  Well, we were able to pick out some of the nicer looking ones of the bunch, but as my sister-in-law commented when she saw them, "they didn't look quite right."
But we were so encouraged when these 25 hens laid 14 or 15 eggs the first day, and since then have laid over 20 eggs in a single day.  And this is almost the middle of November when the days are getting shorter and the colder.  Normally, egg production drops at this time of the year, but ours was increasing.  The phrase, getting a "new lease on life," was certainly applicable to these hens.  At first their egg yolks were typically pale like the store-bought kind. But after a couple of weeks of being out in the fresh air and sun, and eating greens from the pasture, their yolks turned a nice, bright orange.  It was truly fun to see these confinement raised hens, at first hesitant and uncertain about being outside in the bright sunlight, turn into birds that couldn't wait to get out every morning and begin begin their day with all the sun, fresh air and greens they could get.

So, to all you "spent hens" out there . . . there is hope!  There indeed can be life after "confinement"!


   [Yahweh] said to me, "You are my servant . . .
      in whom I will display my splendor."
   But I said, "I have labored to no purpose;
      I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing . . ."
   This is what Yahweh says:
   "In the time of my favor I will answer you,
      and in the day of salvation I will help you . . .
   to restore the land
      and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
   to say to the captives, 'Come out,'
      and to those in darkness, 'Be free!'"
. . . But Zion said, "Yahweh has forsaken me,
      the Lord has forgotten me."
   "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
      and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
   Though she may forget,
      I will not forget you!"
                                         (Isaiah 49:1-16)