TKG Take Ten : Bottoms Up

I have said it before and I will say it again. Farming is all about BOTTOMS! 😂 Not fannys.

And before we get into it: in New Zealand the fanny is the female front bottom. Just saying. Your buttocks in New Zealand are called your BUM. This makes a lot of American bottom discussion quite mystifying and somewhat alarming until you are let in on the secret.

Anyway. Now that we have cleared that up. Back to farming. And bums and bottoms. All of you who follow the Farmy will have seen a lot of animal bums and bottoms by now, they are an excellent gauge of animal health, and the white chickens are no exception.

(And before you ask; the chickens are sitting in leaves and weeds and grass all day and sometimes a leaf attaches itself to the chickens bottom and makes the chicken look a bit silly).

But that’s better than sitting in big airless sheds in their own stink. Don’t you think?

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This is one of the TKG Take Ten videos that I send out at 5pm every Tuesday and Thursday. If you would like to join The Tenners and have these delivered to your inbox, we would love you to upgrade to a Paid Subscriber. It is cheap and the ambient sounds of the farm are much more relaxing that the news!

No kidding.

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Meanwhile back on the farm. Every now and then a chicken will lose good use of its legs after fattening itself a bit too fast and remains sitting on its bum from then on. (You will see me pick up a hen (actually it is a rooster) and move him to a dry patch close to the water. Then get a brick to lean him against). I work hard to make sure this does not happen but they gorge, these chooks, they grow terribly fast so there is always one. But look at the size of those legs anyway. I have never eaten chickens legs and really don’t expect to any time soon. But this breed - it is a meat breed - Cornish Cross - have big strong legs to carry their weight.

It is a nice life for them under the apple trees. Short but nice. Here they are almost nine weeks old.

Once the chickens have eaten all the pumpkin and cleaned out the pumpkin shells I use them for bowls. From these pumpkin bowls today they are eating discarded bread and almond milk from a supermarket close by. We intercept the bread before it gets to the dumpster. We drop all the best bread off at the food pantry then bring the rest out to fatten the pigs and chickens.

And yes. I do see the irony.

Enjoy your ten minutes on the farm.

Take care

Celi