CHORES

Bela stands next to a days food cart several years ago. There's 25 lbs of lay pellets (chicken kibble), a bucket of weeds, veggie scraps, hay for the sheep, a basket for collecting eggs, scratch (mixed corn and other grains for the chickens to scratch in the dirt for), and probably oyster shell (calcium source) and grit (small rocks for the chickens' digestion). These days the birds eat 75-100 lbs a day.

First let everyone out. We keep the chickens locked in three sheds and the waterfowl in a roofed pen every night to protect them from preditors. Then every feeder gets refilled and all the waterers get washed and refilled. The sheep, Thunder & Lightning, enjoy cookies. Dannic scatters scratch grain for the birds' amusement. The horse, Ellie, isn't ours, but boards in our pasture.

Looks like it's time to go to the farmers' market. There's about 75 dozen eggs in the fridge, plus another 16 goose eggs. We put them into yogurt cups because they're so big. We have one fridge just for eggs, and we almost always sell out within 2 hours.