Hey! I am so thrilled you’re here again today!
This is a different kind of Tuesday morning, let me tell ya’.
Instead of rushing around in scrubs, herding the kids into the car and hurriedly kissing them goodbye with a case load already on the brain, I’m here.
With you.
And a cup of coffee.
And a little beeswax candle my girls pulled out of the cupboard last night.
And they’re getting to sleep in a little before chores.
This is different. And amazing. Praise God. Thank you for sharing it with me.
So yesterday we talked about what husbandry means, where & how it has gradually dissolved from modern life the further removed we’ve become from being dependent on good husbandry for mere survival.
I argue that we need it back, now more than ever before.
And freedom (5 freedoms have come to mind) is why.
Freedom 1: from the sterility and hardness of utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism demands that a thing be used and manipulated for maximum output, toward a singular purpose.
Take for instance: the modern White Leghorn chicken — commercially bred for minimal cage-space consumption in a concentration camp-style warehouse, greatest feed conversion, white egg shells, and maximum egg output.
Never mind that those birds’ claws will never scratch the soil, their beaks will never snip a blade of grass, their feathers won’t lift them a centimeter off the ground.
A utilitarian consumption of the animal, turning a blind eye to its design.
Conversely, husbandry considers the demands of the environment in which the laying hen is desired to live and questions if any hen is suited to live in that environment in the first place - which would have effectively put an end to piling chickens 12 feet high in wire cages before the first wire was ever bent.
Chickens have claws for scratching and turning over soil, beaks for omnivorously pecking, and feathers for insulation as well as flying. (Yes chickens can fly - just try to keep them out of your garden with a short fence, and they’ll happily demonstrate their aerial proficiency).
Is the chicken going to live in a hot or cool climate? How much space will be available for her? Will she need to produce 6 eggs a week, or is 3 enough? Does she need to be a dual purpose chicken (for egg and meat production) or are eggs the only priority? Will she live in a large flock or with just a handful of other hens?
Husbandry chooses the most appropriate breed(s) suited for a particular environment, and provides what is needful for the maximum expression of the hen’s “chicken-ness” (borrowed from Joel Salatin - thank you sir), which in turn will precipitate efficient output of eggs by the hen to the elation of the farmer.
While we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of chicken husbandry (ha ha…I know…eye roll), it’s most definitely high on the list of articles to come!
But this week, we’ll continue the daily Husbandry 101 series to lay the foundation for the “why” behind all of this.
I’ll meet you back here tomorrow as we dig into husbandry as a liberator from management by emergency.
Until then, all the best to you. And thank you for reading.
I hope you will get through The rest of it smoothly. 💗☺️😘😗
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