Which Came First...

the chicken or the egg? In my case, the chicken. My Mables are doing quite well. They LOVE this nice weather and even when we have a "set back" as is often the case in Missouri, they are out there scratching and pecking to their hearts content. Jack is so cute to watch with "his ladies". He calls them over to inspect an interesting tidbit in the ground, warns them when the hawks fly over and worries if they all do not stay right with him. There are some independent Mables who like to wonder around on their own and ignore his callings. Mable eggs have gotten progressively better these past weeks and oh so yummy. I think of my chickens as free-range, but, as usual, the names farmers have used for generations have been high-jacked by the commercial "farms" and no longer mean anything. If the egg-carton in the store says free-range by law it means chickens are "given access" to the outdoors, it doesn't mean they actually go outside. Some industrial "farms" have one small chicken door per thousands of hens. The outdoor facility is almost always a fenced dirt yard void of anything green or living. The new marketing term for REAL free-range chickens is pasture-raised. I suppose it is just a matter of time before corporate "farms" call their crowded dirty dead dirt yards (as opposed to living organic soil) pastures. Then, once again, true farms will have to change their description of true free-range, pasture-raised chickens. Just to be safe, BUY FRESH. BUY LOCAL, and ask questions!